Scapegoat
by Quill of Molliemon
Summary: Semi AU My introduction of a comic character into the evoverse. Meet Felix Hausmann, an ordinary German teenager that is ordinary no more. In fact he's 'dead'... long live Azazel... r&r please! COMPLETE!
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: **I do not own X-Men: Evolution or any character of the X-Men universe, Marvel does. I am merely a simple college student, which means that I am quite poor and have no job. Therefore, suing would get you nothing so please don't bother.****

**Author's Notes: **In this story I shall (try to) introduce a comic character to the evo-verse with my own little spin. Recently in the comics Nightcrawler's biological father was finally revealed to be a long-lived Mutant known as Azazel. His one burning ambition is to rule the world and to do that he wanders about the world making babies with willing women. With the help of his offspring and a small army that is trapped in another dimension he tries to put his plan into action but the X-Men stop him. I've only read the last issue of that particular story arc so I'm not exactly sure of the events but that is my best educated guess. I don't like this mean evil Azazel so I'm going to make him better…

**Prologue**

It was dark. It was cold. It was quiet. There was nothing. A sea of black nothingness. There was no sky. There was no ground. There was no sun. There was no moon. Nothing was solid. Nothing was certain. Nothing was there. Nothing at all.

_Chaos…_

That was what this place was. It was pure chaos. Not fire, not swirling color, not roaring shapeless sound. Chaos is not anything, it is nothing. Nothing concrete can exist in it. Nothing rational can survive. Nothing at all can survive.

_Fear…_

That was what he felt. Nothing was familiar to him. Nothing was known. Nothing was safe. He was in the dark abyss of chaos where he knew that he didn't belong. He was of the realm of reason, the world of order. If he stayed here too long he would cease to be. Already he had forgotten many things.

_Confusion…_

Who was he? What was he? Where did he come from? How did he get here? How could he get out? Would he die? Was he dead?

_Pine trees…_

Suddenly he saw pine trees. Saw their green needles, some short, some long. Most were roughly cone shaped masses of green with a few more spherical in form. The ground was coated with yellowed fallen needles and dried out pine cones. Parts of the exposed trunks were coated with sticky sap. He could almost smell the strong scent.

_Rain…_

The scene shifted in the blink of an eye to a drab, unremarkable town. The light was poor and made worse by the torrential rain that soaked and distorted everything. There was no one outdoors due to the awful weather. The buildings were all old, throw backs to the middle ages. The streets were all brick and cobblestone and they twisted and turned with little reason as to why. This town was definitely old.

_Fire…_

A campfire. There were other people sitting around him, but their faces were blurry. From the clothes and vague outlines he guessed that most of them were male. They was some sort of conversation going on, but it was garbled and distant to his ears. The whole scene was blurry though he could see no reason for that to be. The only thing that he could see clearly was the fire.

_Screams…_

This scene was the blurriest yet. It wasn't clear where he was. It wasn't clear what time it was. There were a smattering of colored shapes that might be people, but he couldn't be sure. The only thing that was clear were the screams. He heard women screaming and men screaming. Why were they screaming?

_Death…_

Why did that word suddenly come to him? The images that he saw now were simply blobs of shifting color. Was that what it looked like when you died? There was some sound, but it was so distorted that there was no way to be certain if they were words or explosions. Was that what it sounded like when you died? Why was he seeing these things?

_Who was he?_

_ What was he?_

_ Was he dead?_

_ Death…?_


	2. Felix

**Chapter 1**

**Felix**

Felix shot up so fast that he fell off his bed and onto the cold wooden floor of his bedroom. He breathlessly cursed as he struggled with his tangled sheets while his heart still pounded from his barely remembered nightmare. He had almost freed himself and tried to stand but the sweat-soaked sheet wrapped itself around his ankle and tripped him back to the ground. This provoked a new round of curses as he rubbed at his collection of sore spots and peeled the last tendril of clingy sheet from his leg. He panted heavily and leaned his back against the side of his messy bed as he let his eyes adjust to the darkness. With one shaky hand he pushed back his messy black hair wrinkling his nose in disgust when his hand came back wet. It was then that he discovered that his entire body was soaked in sweat making his clothes stick to him uncomfortably and causing him to shiver in the cool night air. He started cursing again, _damn these nightmares!_

Every night without fail since two months ago he'd had the same frightening dream. He could never remember much of it when he woke up and he could never tell what was so scary about, but he was certain that it was exactly the same dream. He knew that he saw part of the forest and part of town, but beyond that everything was a blur. Felix rubbed at his sleep clogged eyes and squinted at his very high tech digital clock. The red electronic numbers declared the time as being 6:37 AM, fat too early for him to be awake. He groaned and buried his head in his hands. Why couldn't life be fair to him for once? He had the strictest, weirdest, most evil parents in town. No one, not even his friends ever took him seriously. And now he was suffering from some odd chronic nightmare that woke him up at insane hours of the night or morning.

A sound from below caught his attention. He held his breath and waited to see if he heard anything else. When nothing else was heard after several minutes he relaxed. His parents were borderline crazy. If they found that he was awake this early they would assume that he had done or was doing something that he shouldn't like sneaking out of the house. Günter Hausmann the carpenter, his father, and Annamarie Hausmann the seamstress, his mother, were some of the most religious people in his hometown of Winzeldorf. They went to Roman Catholic Church every Sunday without fail and attended masses whenever they had time to spare. Both carried rosaries and Bibles where ever they went and prayed over every little thing. They slavishly adhered to the rules set by the Ten Commandments and the Scriptures. Tradition and religion were their lives and because he was their son it was going to be his life as well, whether he liked it or not.

They had always been strict with him. They drilled into him the importance and power of God and His laws. Even the smallest hint of rebellion, a white lie, stealing a cookie before dinner, talking back to his mother, was punished quickly and harshly. He had his own rosary and Bible that he was supposed to keep near him at all times and whenever his parents went to Church he had to go too. He could be in the middle of a _Fuβball _game and they would come and drag him off to Church with him. Because of this, he was always a well-behaved child. At least in their presence he was. Whenever he was free of them and most other adults he was far less controlled. Children like himself are never able to stand being smothered and controlled that way and so he would act out when he was alone or among friends.

But when he turned thirteen and became, to use the American term, a 'teenager' everything got even worse. His childish energies and desires became adolescent, young adult energies and desires. His body grew and changed from a boy's body to a man's, he began to develop new interests in girls, and worst of all his need to rebel against his parents and define himself grew ever greater. And his parents knew all of this. They found ways to be even more strict with him so that he would remain 'pure' in their minds. No experimentation for him, no drugs of any kind and no alcohol despite the fact that legally he could drink it now. No going out after dark unless one of them was with him in spite of the fact that his legal curfew was 11:00 PM. And there absolutely no unsupervised visits with girls allowed, meaning that he had no chance to have a real girlfriend. Essentially his parents insured that he had no life.

His friends understood. Every adult was similar to his parents though very few were quite as extreme. They all had to suffer under intense scrutiny, stiff curfews, and other smothering, ridiculous rules. In Winzeldorf teenagers were the suppressed class. Their town was isolated out in the middle of the Bavarian forest. Technology was slow to come to this conservative and deeply religious place. And when it did arrive none of the older generations trusted it. The new information these new devices brought images of the outside world that disturbed the people. They saw how things had changed and did not want that to happen to their town. And the way to stop change was to control the youth, especially teenagers. And so life in their small town had barely changed at all for decades.

Felix peered up at his clock, one of the most advanced things in his house, again. It now read 6:55 AM, five minutes before his parents would come in and wake him up. Wearily he crawled off the floor and back into bed taking his sheets with him. If he wasn't in bed they would ask questions that he didn't want to answer. In three minutes he was back under his covers with his eyes closed looking like he'd never fallen out of bed at all. Then like clockwork at exactly 7:00 AM his mother came in to wake him. The door creaked open spilling bright light into his dark warm sanctuary. He heard her shuffle across the wood floor and pause next to his bed. He waited until she squeezed his shoulder before opening his eyes and getting out of bed. No words were exchanged, they didn't need to be, he knew the drill.

His mother left him to quickly shower and dress himself before he came down to breakfast. After he completed his morning rituals he scampered down the stairs just in time. At 7:30 AM sharp grace was said and breakfast was served. Aside from grace not a word was spoken, it was a time for silence and contemplation for his parents and utter boredom for him. Once they had all eaten their fill his father said one last prayer and he and Felix left for work and school while his mother cleaned up. His father followed him almost the whole way to his small school before turning away to his woodshop. Felix frowned as he father walked away. His parents had known him all his life; they should know him better than this. Why would he skip school? It wasn't like there much else for him to do other than go. And besides, he didn't dare directly defy his parents like that.

He entered the doors of the old crumbling school that served as both a primary and secondary school. The older students' classes started at 8:00 AM while the younger students' classes began at 9:00 AM. The hallway was dim and musty and very empty. The building could probably hold 500 students but there were only about half that enrolled and most of them were younger. There were only two classes of older students, one class of 15 and 16 year olds and one class of 17 and 18 year olds. He happened to be in the second class. With his 18th birthday last week he was now in the upper echelon of the school. There was no student older than he and his companions, only the teachers out-ranked them.

As he walked into his musty old classroom he glanced at the old clock and saw that he still had five minutes before the teacher came in. He flopped down into his customary seat in the back by one of the few windows and dropped his book-bag alongside. The old wooden desk was covered in ink stains and scratches that made it impossible to write unless there was a book underneath it. The metal parts of the desk and chair were half rusted and sometimes he feared that he would contract tetanus just by looking at it. The seat of the chair was made of rough black plastic and was as scratched up as the surface of the desk and when he sat down in it, it would creak. The lights above him sometimes flickered if the door to the room was slammed too hard and always seemed dim compared to other electric lights. The blackboard was permanently grayed by chalk dust and the eraser looked like a dead rat. He knew his classroom was a dump, but he'd never personally seen any other.

"_Guten Morgen _Felix. Sleep well?" Wolfgang Kleinfeld teased.

"Shut up Wolfie." Felix grumbled; he wasn't in the mood for playing right now.

"That's not very nice. People aren't supposed to speak to their best friends that way." Wolfie complained.

"I know, I'm just really tired." Felix sighed quietly.

"Yes, that's what you said yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that. I think that you just don't like me anymore." Wolfie moaned quietly.

"No Wolfie it's not that. I haven't been sleeping well lately." Felix muttered rubbing at his tired eyes. During breakfast he'd felt awake enough but now his sleep deprivation was catching up with him.

"Why?" Wolfie asked him.

"I'm not sure, nightmares I think." Felix replied.

"You think? What do you mean you think?" Wolfie asked confused.

"I can never really remember what happens, but when you wake up suddenly covered in sweat and panicking it has to be bad." Felix explained. He'd never told anyone about his dreams yet and Wolfie was about to remind him why.

"Nah, it probably was a great dream that had a bad ending." Wolfie declared somewhat smugly. Felix gave him a hard look.

"Oh? How do you figure that?" Felix demanded.

"Well, I bet it was a great dream, but then when it was over you thought it was real and were afraid that your parents would catch you and punish you." Wolfie snickered. Felix glared at his best friend. _So Wolfgang thinks it was a dirty dream. Typical._

"Whatever." He snorted angrily.

Before Wolfgang could reply the teacher walked in and the room fell silent. _Herr _Feldmann was not a man to cross, especially this early in the morning. All twenty students straightened up and faced forward as they waited for the chubby old man the start their lesson. As the stuffy geezer began teaching them about some science theory Felix let his attention wander, he could always look the lesson up in the book later if necessary. The barely remembered images and sensations from his dream were haunting his thoughts. It was all so strange, but some parts felt familiar, like he'd been to those places in real life even though he couldn't remember what they looked like. Felix squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. The more he thought about his dream the more uncomfortable he felt. Finally he couldn't take it anymore and forced himself to pay attention to _Herr _Feldmann's dull lecture.


	3. Walk in the Woods

**Chapter 2**

**Walk in the Woods**

Felix gazed up at a small section of sky that was visible between the treetops. School was out for the day and he had a few hours to himself before he was expected home for dinner so he decided to spend it out in the forest. When the final bell rang he slipped off into the vast forest that completely surrounded his hometown. Why he decided to come out here he didn't know, he just felt like he should. So now he was simply walking about the woods taking random trails with no specific destination in mind. However, he wasn't alone. Wolfie must've spotted him walking off and decided to follow along. At first Felix hadn't realized that Wolfie was there, but after nearly a half an hour of aimless walking his friend started to complain.

"Felix, why are we out here?" Wolfie whined.

"No reason." Felix muttered.

"No reason? How can you not have a reason?" Wolfie asked incredulously.

"I just feel like it, alright?" Felix snapped.

"But why do you feel like it?" Wolfie wondered.

"If I knew I would tell you." Felix sighed.

"Well make something up then." Wolfie grumbled.

"Why should I?" Felix asked, confused by the odd request.

"Just humor me." Wolfie sighed.

"Fine, I came out here to look at the trees." Felix replied.

"That's a stupid reason." Wolfie complained.

"You said to make up a reason so I did. It's not my fault that I can't fabricate good reasons." Felix calmly reminded him.

"So what." Wolfie grumbled sourly.

Felix decided not to reply. The two of them walked still further into the ancient forest. All around them the trees grew denser, older, and more twisted. The layer of dead needles grew thicker beneath their feet muffling their footfalls. The atmosphere went from cool and pleasant to stuffy and eerie. Somewhere in the distance a crow cawed harshly making Wolfie yelp. A rogue gust of wind made the tree tops groaned and sway high above them. Felix was aware that Wolfie was starting to freak out in this creepy section of the woods but he felt almost compelled to continue on. For some unknown reason it was very important for him to keep going. If Wolfie didn't like it he could turn back whenever he wished to. It wasn't like Felix had asked him to come along with him into the forest.

Then after pushing through a particularly dense clump of bushed they emerged into a rare clearing. It was wide enough that the tree branches couldn't close over the hole leaving a roughly circular patch of sky. The layer of pine needles here was shallower and clumps of weeds and herbs poked through it to reach for the nourishing sunlight. The air here was cool and sweet though it still stunk of pine more than anything else. There were all sorts of evergreen trees here; both the common cone shaped ones and the rarer spherical kind. All around the clearing were brown shriveled pine cones who had completed their biologic purpose and were no longer needed. It was a beautiful spot, very peaceful, but also remote. He spent many hours of his childhood exploring this enormous forest and he had never stumbled across this particular place before. But despite knowing that, he felt as if he had been here.

And with that thought the trouble started. A sudden spike of pain struck him just behind his eyes causing him to clutch his head in agony. It was like an instant migraine. When his Uncle got migraines they slowly would creep up on him until he had to sneak off and hide until his pills kicked in. This was sudden and overwhelming. The light was suddenly unbearably bright and the sound of Wolfie's concerned voice made the throbbing stabbing ache worse and worse. He felt dizzy and his knees were shaky. As the pain intensified he began to feel nauseous and was torn between keeping his lunch down and keeping his head from exploding. Never in his life had he ever felt so bad.

"Felix! Felix what's wrong?" Wolfie asked frantically.

"My head hurts." Felix wheezed weakly.

Then, as suddenly as it appeared, the pain began to recede. It didn't vanish completely, but it became more manageable. He no longer felt like puking his guts out or that his was going to explode. The light and sound didn't make his head hurt worse anymore and his grip loosened on his aching skull. Blinking against the lingering ache he found himself half collapsed on the ground and swaying a bit. He tried to stand up but found that his legs didn't want to cooperate. After the third try he gave up and just sat there rubbing his temples. This was just plain weird.

"Felix?" Wolfie asked hesitantly.

"What?" Felix grumbled.

"Are you okay?" Wolfie timidly inquired.

"No. My head doesn't hurt as much, but now I can't get up." Felix complained.

"Are you sure you can't get up?" Wolfie asked worriedly.

"Yes, Wolfie I'm sure." Felix snapped pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Well, then give me your arm and I'll help you up." Wolfie commanded.

Felix obediently raised his arm for Wolfie to take and his friend attempted to haul him upright. At first Wolfie was unprepared for Felix's added weight and he overbalanced causing them both to tumble to the ground. Felix could see that Wolfie was obviously frustrated and a little frightened by what had just happened and Felix couldn't blame him. Wolfie tried again this time with greater success. Now that Felix was standing, well sort of standing, Wolfie tried to get him back home. For a good hour or so Wolfie had to half-drag, half-carry him back to his home. The strange headache seemed to have leeched away all his spare energy, leaving him with just enough to stay conscious and talk to Wolfie when he said something to him. The sun was beginning to set when Felix arrived home at his doorstep. A quick glance at his watch told him that he had ten minutes until dinner.

"Thanks Wolfie, you can go home now." Felix sighed as he clung to the doorframe.

"Are you going to be alright Felix?" Wolfie asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I think so." Felix sighed stumbling over the threshold.

"So I'll see you tomorrow then?" Wolfie inquired.

"Yes, after Saturday Mass." Felix muttered.

"Right, _auf wiedersehen_!" Wolfie called over his shoulder as he walked off.

Felix gave a little wave before heading to the dinning room. He still felt strangely weak and was forced to cling to walls and shelves to stay upright and move along the hall. At the doorway leading into the dinning room he paused to look in. The table was set but his parents were nowhere in sight. Carefully he stumbled his way across the open space of the room and collapsed into his chair. He still had some time before his parents would come in with dinner so he leaned back and closed his eyes. His head still throbbed with a dull constant ache and he was utterly exhausted. He could only hope that food would help restore his missing energy. If it didn't his parents would notice and they would ask questions that he didn't want to deal with. If they believed his story about the mysterious migraine they would worry and take him to doctor after doctor until they could get an explanation for it. And they would redouble their prayers, which meant so would he.

"Felix, what are you doing?" His mother demanded. Felix's eyes snapped open.

"I was sitting with my eyes closed." He replied carefully.

"And why is that?" She asked.

"I have a headache." He answered. His mother studied him for a moment before she decided to believe him.

"Well after dinner I will get you some painkillers." She replied and left to bring in dinner.

As his mother left the room his father entered. His father was a stern deeply religious very traditional man. He was the patriarch and absolute ruler of the house and when he made a decision it was not to be challenged. His face was full of hard lines from hard work and his hands were scarred from his carpentry career. His teeth were stained yellow and his breath and clothes permanently stunk of tobacco smoke from his pipe smoking habit. His hair, once pure black, was iron gray with flecks of white moving up from his temples. His eyes were a dark slate color that always looked cold and forbidding to Felix. His father never truly smiled, but he certainly frowned. While he never raised his voice above normal speaking tones he could make it terrifying when needed.

Felix's attention shifted from his stiff father to his mother who had just returned with some sort of casserole. In her day she had been one of the prettiest girls in Winzeldorf. Her eyes were a brilliant blue that shone like stars from her pale delicately featured face. Her slender build contrasted sharply against his father's more bulky frame. For some reason she found his father wonderful and charming and when they were both 19 they married. For nearly five years they had a wonderful life together, and then he came along and changed everything. If she had raised him without his father's influence Felix thought that she wouldn't be quite as strict. But she was submissive to his father and would go along with anything that he decided without any complaint. There were a few times when Felix thought that she might speak against his father, but she never did.

After the food had been distributed his father said a long complex grace that threatened to put Felix to sleep. As his father finally finished Felix said his own silent prayer of thanks and dug in. At first it took a lot of effort to get the food into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. But after they got into his system and began to take effect he had the energy to shovel in his food. And he was _so hungry. _Before he'd simply felt exhausted and sleepy but now the hunger hit him full force. He could never remember feeling so hungry in his life. He knew that this was catching his parents' attentions but he couldn't make himself slow down. But by the fourth large helping they'd had enough.

"Did you skip your lunch Felix?" His mother asked.

"No mother." Felix answered between mouthfuls.

"Then why are you eating so much?" She wondered.

"I don't know; I'm just really hungry." Felix replied.

"It must be a growth spurt then." His father decided and the issue was closed.

Felix supposed that his father could be right. He'd never heard of migraines triggering growth spurts but there were first times for anything. Compared to his father, Felix was short. So far he had taken more after his mother in the looks department. He was shorter than his father and he was skinnier. His father stood at about 6'3" while he barely made it past 5'7". And where his father was large and muscular, he was lean, almost slender. His father's face was rough though not really ugly while his own face was smoother and almost bordered on feminine in appearance. His father looked older than he really was and Felix looked younger than he was. In fact, it seemed that the only thing that Felix had inherited from his father had been hair color. Felix's hair was the same deep black that his father's had been while his mother's hair was a dark brown.

After a few more helpings of his mother's delicious casseroles Felix finally managed to fill himself. His father said one last prayer for the night and the family was dismissed. Felix carried the dishes to the sink and started to wash them free of traces of food. As he worked his mother appeared with the promised pills and he paused only long enough to down them. By the time he had finished the dishes and made it back upstairs to do his homework, his persistent headache was beginning to finally fade. With a sigh of relief Felix threw himself into his homework trying to forget about what had happened to him earlier. But halfway through his last assignment he realized something. _That clearing was that same one that was in my dream…_


	4. Old Anna

**Chapter 3**

**Old Anna**

Felix struggled valiantly not to slouch in the pews of his Church. Once again he'd had a nightmare which had disturbed his sleep and rattled him more than he liked to admit. Add exhaustion to his sleep deprivation and put him in a dull Saturday Mass and it became nearly impossible to keep conscious. Father Hermann, the older and duller of the priests of this Church, droned on and on about a passage from the book of Revelations, his favorite topic. Why that old man liked this particular book of the Bible so much was a mystery to Felix. With bleary eyes he tried to focus on the withered old man and his dry flat voice, but found that his mind kept drifting back to his recurring nightmare. So far the first scene had come true, did that mean that the rest would? And what about that premonition of 'death'?

Sudden he was pulled back to the present by all the people around him standing up. He quickly stood along with them and joined in the final prayer. After Father Hermann gave his final blessing and dismissed them all Felix followed everyone out into the bright sunlight. He told both his mother and his father that he was going to be with Wolfgang all day and gained their permission to leave. Now that he had done that he scampered off to find Wolfgang as he promised he would the day before. Felix jogging along the wide well-worn dirt path that lead the quarter mile from the Church to the edge of town. All around him were aged pines and thorny rose bushes planted by a long-absent order of monks who once lived in the now half-collapsed dormitories around the Church. As he crested a small hill the trees opened up to reveal his isolated hometown of Winzeldorf.

After catching his breath Felix continued on down the path into Winzeldorf itself. Most of the buildings were old. Most had been around since before World War II and since the Nazis never had much important things here none of the buildings had been bombed or damaged. All the buildings were covered in decorative wood carvings and old designs that had their origins in the middle ages. All the windows had elaborately carved shutters and flower boxes hanging from the sills. The window panes were covered in iron patterns that broke the rectangles of glass into tens of diamond shapes. Wooden signs that identified businesses were fancifully carved with flowing letters in the old local dialect.

The street that he was walking along was probably ten times as old as the buildings if not even older than that. They twisted and turned in odd confusing patterns formed when ancient Winzeldorf was first born. The streets were made of cracked bricks and cobblestones worn smooth by many generations of feet, wheels, and hooves pounding against their surfaces. The narrow streets were barely wide enough for a single lane of cars to pass through and only the main street that bisected the town was wide enough for two different lanes. The streets were lined by ancient black metal streetlamps that had only a few decades before been switched over to run on electricity. Some tourists might fine this place charming or fascinating. Felix just found it old and backward.

Felix finally arrived at _Herr _Grimm's bakery shop on the main street. It was easily identifiable by its sign, a giant wooden pretzel that hung out over the door. The display window's edges were handsomely decorated with swirls of white and black paint. _Herr _Grimm's name was written in the center of the large glass window in swirling black and gold letters. On the other side of the glass were freshly baked examples of _Herr _Grimm's various products. There were all kinds of pastries, breads, buns, cakes, cookies, and, of course, pretzels. Just looking at those fresh baked goods and smelling the scents that emanated from the shop make his mouth water and his stomach growl loudly. Despite the large breakfast that he had consumed just before leaving for Church he found himself starving once again.

"Felix!" Wolfie's voice broke his little daydream about giant soft pretzels and sweet muffins. He turned away from the display window to see Wolfie running up to him at top speed.

"_Guten Morgen _Wolfie. _Wie geht's_?" Felix asked casually leaning up against a nearby light pole.

"_Gut, _I'm good. And you?" Wolfie asked breathlessly.

"I'm alright; better than I was last night." Felix replied.

"How did things go after I left?" Wolfie asked curiously.

"I got by fine. I just ate some dinner and took some pills and I was fine." Felix answered.

"Well that's good to hear." Wolfie replied cheerfully. "So, what do you want to do today?"

"The same thing that we do everyday." Felix sighed rolling his eyes skyward. "Walk around aimlessly until lunchtime then go out and do it again."

"Are you sure you're all right?" Wolfie asked suddenly.

"Yes, of course I am." Felix snorted. "Why do you ask?"

"When I say 'so what do you want to do today?' you say something silly like 'climb a mountain!' or 'jump from roof to roof'. You never say what we actually end up doing." Wolfie explained. Felix frowned and sighed.

"Well I'm still tired so I'm just not in the mood for making silly things up this time Wolfie." Felix replied.

"Oh, alright then." Wolfie mumbled though he didn't look the least bit convinced. Felix decided to ignore Wolfie's reaction.

Without a word he pushed off the light pole and started walking while Wolfie followed. Together they wandered the twisted streets with no particular destination in mind. Time slowly crept by as the two boys wandered around. Occasionally they would cross paths with another group of young people who were doing basically the same thing that they were. Some others talked, some sang, and some were just as quiet as they were. They all wandered the streets because they had nothing to do. Those who had jobs didn't work on weekends and their parents didn't want them staying indoors watching TV all day so the only thing left to do was wander around. It was all so dull sometimes that Felix was actually tempted to cry.

Then something mildly interesting happened. As he and Wolfie rounded a bend they came across one of the few interesting residents of Winzeldorf. Anna Gartner, crazy old Anna, was an eccentric old spinster of 61 years. She was one of the few people who only went to Church once a week. She lived alone on the outer fringe of town in her crumbling cottage with only a small horde of cats for company. Her hair was pure white and pulled into a frizzy ponytail. Behind one ear she always tucked a flower of some kind, during the spring and summer it was a real blossom and during the fall and winter it was a fake silk flower. Where ever she went she carried one of her cats on her shoulder and would always speak lovingly to it. The only time she was cat-less was in the Church. Because of her odd eccentricities most of the adults indulged in rumors of her witchcraft though no one ever openly accused her of anything.

"_Hallo Jungen_!" She called out to them cheerfully.

"_Hallo Frau _Gartner." Both boys greeted in return.

"What a beautiful day." She declared as she closed the distance between them. She had a black cat with her today and it stared at the two of them with calculating emerald eyes.

"Yes it is." Wolfie guardedly agreed.

"I suppose." Felix replied. Anna and the cat suddenly fixed their gazes upon him.

"Are you not well Felix?" She asked him. Felix blinked, what was it with people not thinking that he was in his right mind today?

"I am fine _Frau _Gartner, just a little tired." He answered.

"Please, call me Anna. Now why are you so tired Felix? Not sleeping well?" She asked him kindly.

"Yes, I've had some trouble sleeping." Felix reluctantly admitted.

"Why?" She asked curiously.

"I've had some weird nightmare a lot recently." Felix muttered hesitantly. Anna's gaze grew intense and nearby he could see Wolfie grow restless.

"What do you see in it?" She asked in a slightly sharper tone.

"Just flashes of places. I don't even know what's so scary about it, but it always wakes me up and won't let me sleep after it." Felix sighed in frustration. Anna and her black cat studied him for a long moment.

"That's very interesting Felix. How about you come over to my house sometime and we'll discuss this further. Perhaps we could figure how to make the dream stop so you can sleep. Maxi and my other friends would love it if you came to visit." Anna suggested, petting the green-eyed cat on her shoulder. The black cat, Maxi he guessed, purred and snuggled against Anna's slightly wrinkled cheek. Then the odd pair walked off and left the boys standing by the street corner.

"So are you going to visit her Felix?" Wolfie asked after a few minutes.

"I don't know Wolfie." Felix muttered. "I don't know."


	5. Rainy Day

**Chapter 4**

**Rainy Day**

Felix peered out his small window at the gray sky above. The sun was completely obscured by dark gray clouds that promised rain. Gusts of wind occasionally rattled the window pane and made the trees branches bend and wave. The leaves that were still attached to the trees were faded yellows and pale browns. The streets were blanketed with fallen leaves that were dry and shriveled. With each gust of wind these leaves rasped over the cobblestones so loudly that Felix could faintly hear it through his window. Basically it was a miserable late September day.

It had been exactly one week since old Anna had requested a visit from him and he had yet to go see her. At first he had considered going to visit with her. It might be interesting, and truly interesting things are a rarity in Winzeldorf. But so far, fear had won out over curiosity. Very few people had ever been inside Anna's house and fewer spoke of what they saw. Anna had no relatives and no true friends so no one really knew her. And no one wanted to either. She lived alone with an unknown number of cats leaving her house only to go to Church and buy supplies. He remembered the black, green-eyed cat that he'd seen with her and shivered.

He turned away from the dreary view and sank down onto his bed. Wolfie had caught the flu two days ago leaving Felix temporarily friendless. There were a few other boys like Heinrich, Axel, and Arnold that he considered friends, but he wasn't nearly as close to them as he was with Wolfie. Wolfie might not believe everything that he said, but he would never tell another soul. No one else would do that for him. If they heard something that they thought was interesting or might be true they would add his words to the rumor mill and he would gain more attention and possible trouble than he wanted. Right now Felix didn't feel quite desperate enough to seek out another friend to hang out with.

With a sigh Felix rolled off his bed and trudged downstairs. He entered the kitchen and began fixing himself a few sandwiches. As he filled the space between the pieces of bread he pondered the odd changes that life had decided to hit him with recently. He was always tired and irritable now and it didn't seem like mild sleep deprivation and odd nightmares could account for all of it. While he'd had no sudden migraines after the episode in the woods, he'd had strange aches and pains throughout his body. Sometimes his hands, feet, and ankles would stiffen up or become sore. Most mornings he woke up with a painfully stiff lower back that took extra time and effort to loosen up. And he was hungry all the time, which was why he was making himself several sandwiches.

After completing the final sandwich he wrapped two in napkins and placed them in his coat pockets and began to eat the third one. Felix pulled on his coat, left a note on his family's ancient refrigerator, and walked out the door. He was sick of contemplating the half-naked trees outside his window. He felt inexplicably restless and decided to go on a walk to try and clear his mind. The cold blast of wind that hit him as he stepped out of his home made him pause until he became a bit number to the cooler temperature. Felix took a bite out of his sandwich and wandered off towards the heart of town. Hopefully an hour or two out here would relieve his mysterious restlessness.

Felix ambled along the narrow streets of Winzeldorf on autopilot. He was peripherally aware of his surroundings so that he didn't do something stupid like walk into a light pole or get hit by the rare car, but his higher brain functions were not really functioning. He simply put one foot in front of the other and kept moving, sometimes following one street for several blocks before turning and other times he turned at every crossroads. The brown shriveled husks of old leaves crunched loudly under his feet but he barely heard them. The only time during his aimless wanderings that he was aware of his location was when he finished his first sandwich and stopped to unwrap a second. After starting the second sandwich he blanked out again until he almost stepped on a gray and white cat.

This jolted Felix back to the present and he froze. There was only one person who let their cat wander loose like this. Slowly he raised his eyes from the sidewalk and scanned the nearby buildings. He found himself on the edge of town were the houses were more spread out. He saw only a few houses, and one of them was Anna's. Her house looked the same as it always did. Her lawn and garden were simple, but well kept. All her shutters were firmly shut and the paint was peeling all over. The roof had several bare patches where the tiles were missing and the gutters were horribly rusted. The fence that had once surrounded the property had almost vanished with only a few posts still standing in some places. The building itself looked like it was sagging somehow and if he didn't know better he would say that it was abandoned.

The gray cat sudden darted from where it had sat in front of his feet towards the half-rotted porch of Anna's house. Silently he watched as the gray and white feline race across the leaf-littered lawn and into the shadows of the porch. The dim shadows swallowed the pale cat and he moved closer to Anna's house to try and see where the cat had gone. Just as he finished up his second sandwich the dark wooden door abruptly creaked open to reveal Anna herself. Her hair was in its customary sloppy ponytail and she had her signature flower, this one was a purple silk rose, tucked behind her ear. The grayish cat suddenly reappeared as it darted out from behind some empty flower pots and went into the house. Anna was closing the door when she spotted him and smiled.

"_Guten Tag _Felix! I never thought you'd come." She greeted warmly. "Please come in and I'll make you some tea."

Without really thinking about it Felix did as he was told. He crossed the lawn and entered into old crazy Anna's house before he even realized that he'd moved. What probably surprised him the most about Anna's house was the smell. The smallest number of cats she was said to have was ten and it certainly didn't smell like ten cats lived here. It didn't smell like any cats lived here at all. Cautiously he followed Anna into a small parlor room and sat down on the couch while she bustled off to make some tea. While he waited, Felix started on his final sandwich and glanced around the room.

The furniture was old, worn, and scratched, but still serviceable. The carpet was worn flat and discolored from hundreds of cat feet treading on it. The wallpaper was old, faded, and discolored in a few places, but it didn't look ugly. The walls were covered with old pictures in simple wooden frames. They mostly depicted various cats in different poses and settings. Some of the pictures looked professionally taken while others were more amateurish. There were pictures of kittens playing with yarn and cats hiding under baskets. The few pictures that weren't of cats looked like old family photos. They were all faded black-and-white snapshots of people that could be relatives or friends. Felix was so busy looking at the pictures he missed Anna's return to the room.

"You like my pictures Felix?" She asked pleasantly making Felix jump a bit.

"Um, yes, very nice. Who took them?" He asked a bit nervously.

"An old friend of mine took most of them for me. Unfortunately she died several years ago so I cannot tell her that you like them." Anna quietly replied pouring two cups of some sort of herbal tea.

"Oh, I'm sorry." He apologized.

"Don't worry about it. Julia was very old, much older than I. She went peacefully in her sleep and now is in a better place." Anna sighed sadly. A black cat, the same one from before he thought, leapt up into her lap and began to purr and snuggle against her.

"Well, um, why did you want to see me?" Felix wondered anxiously.

"Hm? Oh yes, I wished to know more about your dream in private. Are you still experiencing it?" Anna asked sipping her tea.

"Yes, I'm still suffering through it." He admitted.

"Describe to me exactly what you see in it." She commanded.

"Well, it starts out dark, I can't see anything or hear anything. I can't really remember who I am and I feel a bit panicky. Then suddenly I see a scene out in the woods. It only lasts a few seconds and then I see another scene in town. It's raining really hard and no one else is around. Next it changes to a really blurry image of a campfire. There are other people around but I can't see their faces or hear if they are saying anything. Then finally it changes to the last scene, but it's so fuzzy that I can't really see anything at all. All I hear are people screaming. It goes black and…and…" Felix paused.

"Go on." Anna gently urged.

"And this word comes to me. The word it 'death' I think, and it scares me. Then I wake up." Felix finished. Anna sat back and looked to be deep in thought for a while. The only time she moved was to pet the black cat or take a sip of tea.

"Have you ever seen any of these places that were in your dream?" She asked finally.

"Yes, I found the place in the woods last week and I think the place in town is outside _Herr _Brunner's bookstore." Felix replied after thinking for a moment.

"Did anything strange happen to you in those places recently?" Anna asked.

"Um, well in the woods I got this weird headache that left me feeling awful." He reluctantly admitted. Anna and her black cat studied him hard for a few minutes that made Felix squirm.

"Has anything else strange happened to you since that headache?" She inquired, her voice was grave.

"I haven't been sleeping well from the nightmares and I wake up with a really sore back now. Sometimes my hands and feet hurt and I've been really hungry lately." Felix sighed. Anna returned to studying him and Felix sought to ignore her by tasting her tea. He found it to be surprisingly sweet and it was flavored with a trace of peppermint.

"Well Felix, I'm not sure what to tell you." Anna admitted. "I could tell you some secrets and warn you, or I could just warn you. Which would you prefer?" She asked looking quite serious.

"I think I'll take the first option." Felix decided. He was quite curious to see what secrets the rumored witch of Winzeldorf had to tell him.

"Every once and in a while a special individual is born. At first they start out the same as everyone else. They are the same as everyone else except for one tiny difference deep in their essence. And when that special individual gets to a certain age that one special part of their essence comes alive and changes them completely." Anna began, she took a sip from her teacup before resuming.

"I am one of these special people. When I was young I suffered through headaches and visions. As what I saw in my visions began coming true I was frightened. I saw people who I'd never met before die then I would hear about it later in the news. There was a point in time when I considered taking my own life so that I wouldn't have to see anything else that I didn't want to see. I had decided to use a knife and was seconds away from plunging it into my chest when I had another vision." Again Anna paused to take a sip of tea. Felix sat on the edge of the couch mesmerized by her oddly compelling tale.

"This time I did not see the future, but the past. I saw a scene from the war. Two men jumped from a low-flying plane without parachutes and stormed a Nazi concentration camp. Together they destroyed it and saved several prisoners in an army truck. I watched one boy deflect a flying grenade in mid-air seemingly by magic. One of the men wore a Canadian army uniform. The other wore a strange suit that resembled the American's flag and he carried a round shield." Anna paused to study Felix's reaction to this. He didn't know what to think, but continued to listen nonetheless.

"This vision stopped me from ending my life. It was then that I learned that there were other special people out there somewhere, that I wasn't losing my mind. So I put aside the knife and did my best to go on living as best I could. In time I found that cats helped keep me calm so that the visions were easier to take and even control to an extent. And now I live here with as many cats as I can take care of waiting for the day when others like me come and pay me a visit. I know they will, just not when it will be." Anna said, finishing her tale. She poured herself a new cup of tea before she spoke again.

"And now for the warning. From what you have told me and the murky visions that I have seen I cannot tell you anything for certain. All I know is that you are a special person like I am and that your change is at hand. It will be painful and your life will change, but the details remain hidden from my sight." Anna declared.

"Well, what should I do then?" Felix asked unsure of how to take this news.

"Just be careful and take care of yourself." She said sadly. Felix looked at her blankly before he looked down at his watch.

"It's getting late, I have to go home." Felix muttered. His finished the last of his tea and stood up. "_Tchâ, _and thank you for the tea."

"You are welcome Felix. Feel free to come back anytime." Anna replied quietly.

As Felix walked out of the room and out of the house a few more of Anna's cats padded into the room. Cleopatra the white and gray cat flopped down on the back of the couch that the young German teen had just vacated. Agatha a white and brown spotted cat curled around Anna's ankles. Maxi the black cat began to purr loudly in her lap. Gustav the dark gray tom cat seated himself regally on the arm of her chair. When Anna heard the door rattle shut she closed her eyes and sighed sadly.

"God please have mercy on that poor boy." Anna whispered and crossed herself with the Lord's sign.

* * *

Felix pulled his coat tightly shut as he trudged down the narrow cobblestone streets back to this home. While he'd been in Anna's house it had started to rain lightly and now it had worsened into a heavy downpour. It was nearly as dark as night now even though it was barely four o'clock. If it had been cold before it was freezing now and made worse by the icy rain that hammered down from the black heavens above. The weather was absolutely miserable and he was the only person out in it as far as he could see. By the time he reached _Herr _Brunner's bookstore he was soaked and stepped under the store's awning to gain some respite from the torrential downpour.

When he turned back to look out at the rain he realized something. This was exactly what he saw in the second scene from his dream. Then the migraine returned out of nowhere. He instantly fell to his knees clutching his exploding head. All the pains that he had experienced form before hit him all at once. His head was in immeasurable agony, his hands and feet felt like a steamroller was going over them. His lower back spasmed and locked up leaving him temporarily paralyzed. His vision blurred and swam as he struggled not to throw up. But through the pain he had only one thought. _Anna could actually be right. Verdammt!_


	6. Teenage Drama

**Chapter 5**

**Teenage Drama**

Felix slumped miserably at his desk. It was now Thursday, fours days after his second mysterious episode. By some miracle he hadn't blacked out then and when the pain passed he somehow was able to drag himself back home. The rest of the weekend had been Hell on earth for him. He had been so tired and hungry all the time that his mother was seriously considered calling in the town doctor to look him over. Felix did his best to convince her that it was just an average bug that had him under the weather, but she was never entirely persuaded. But by Monday he seemed to have recovered enough to go to school so his mother dropped the issue. Now he was back in school and rather unhappy about it.

But things were starting to improve. In five minutes school would be out and for a few precious hours he would be free of direct parental control. Then he would be free to wander about town and do nothing. Felix sighed silently and lowered his head to his desk. There was never anything to do here. Aside from the three local beer halls there were no restaurants of any kind. All the stores in Winzeldorf are family owned affairs that are small, traditional, and stubbornly resistant to change. There are no strip malls, mega malls, or large shopping centers of any kind. In a landslide decision the town council kept a small movie theater from being built in Winzeldorf and all the other adults agreed with them. There were no arcade games or any other sort of teenage hang out for miles and miles. To a teenager Winzeldorf is a hellish dull dump full of old backward people. And Felix and his friends were trapped in it.

A bell sounded dragging the exhausted Felix back to the present as class was officially dismissed for the day. Slowly he rose from his seat and dumped his notebook back into his backpack. He trudged lethargically out of the classroom, down the stairs, and out of the building. The bright sunlight made him wince, lately he'd become sensitive to bright lights like the sun. He muffled a yawn and made his way home to drop off his bag and collect some more food. He stumbled over his own feet as a new wave of pain lanced through his system. Ever since his last attack the minor pains had grown stronger, more frequent, and harder to ignore. If Anna was right and this was just part of his mysterious change he hoped that it would hurry up and finish so he didn't feel so crappy anymore.

After depositing his bag in his room and fixing himself several large sandwiches Felix left to find Wolfie. After recovering from his minor flu Wolfie had seemed quite distracted lately and during their lunch break he had suddenly asked to meet with him after school. Felix found this quite odd. Unless one of them was sick in bed he always saw Wolfie after school. Whatever was on Wolfie's mind must be really serious. So with sandwich in hand and several in his pockets he set off to find his troubled friend. It took a bit longer than he had expected it would, Wolfie wasn't in any of his usual places. But Felix didn't give up and eventually found him leaning against the musty old library.

Poor Wolfie looked upset about something. His shaggy looking mop of dirty blonde hair appeared messier than it normally was. His green eyes were distant and unfocused as he was obviously off in his own world. Felix padded up to him and munched loudly on his sandwich to see if Wolfie could hear him. Wolfie didn't react in the slightest; he simply continued to stare off into space. Felix finished his first sandwich and sighed. He reached up, grabbed Wolfie's shoulders, and gave his friend a good solid shake. Wolfe yelped and looked around in alarm.

"Relax Wolfie, it's just me." Felix said soothingly.

"Felix, don't sneak up on me like that." Wolfie panted.

"I'm sorry Wolfie; I didn't try to sneak up on you." Felix sighed. "Now what is it that is troubling you?"

"Well you know Heidi Feder?" Wolfie began nervously.

"Of course I do Wolfie. Everybody knows everybody here." Felix replied patiently.

"Right, well there's this rumor that I heard that she likes someone." Wolfie continued.

"Ah, I see." Felix muttered.

Now he understood what the problem was. Heidi Feder was arguably the prettiest girl in Winzeldorf. With her smooth fair skin, pale gold hair, and deep blue eyes she was the ideal Aryan girl according to _Herr _Hitler. Thankfully that insane dictator was long dead so she would be left to whatever man could win her instead of being assigned to some handpicked SS officer. And Heidi had more going for her than just physical beauty. She is also arguably the nicest, sweetest girl in Winzeldorf. All the boys around her age had had some sort of crush on her at some point, well, except for Felix. And at the moment, Wolfie was under Heidi's spell. But now Heidi allegedly was interested in a local boy, something that had never happened before. No wonder Wolfe was so upset.

"Where did you hear this rumor?" Felix asked after a moment.

"Well, it's not exactly a rumor yet. I was eavesdropping on the girls at lunch a few days ago." Wolfie admitted. Felix sighed.

"So why are you telling me this?" Felix asked.

"I was hoping that you could ask around for me and find out who it is that she likes." Wolfie haltingly asked. Felix looked at him incredulously.

"You can't be serious!" Felix sputtered.

"Oh come on, please?" Wolfie begged.

"_Nein._" Felix stiffly replied.

"Come on Felix, it's not like you have anything better to do." Wolfie pleaded.

"No." Felix snapped; his mind was made up. He crossed his arms and walked away.

* * *

"Wolfie, please remind me why I'm doing this again." Felix sighed tiredly as he downed the last bit of his last sandwich.

"You're doing this because you are me best friend in the whole wide world and you love me." Wolfie replied soothingly.

"Right, that's it." Felix muttered as he left Wolfie's company and headed for a knot of other teenagers.

Agnes Luft, Beate Thal, and Elke Schuh were clustered together against the chill air on a corner. Agnes Luft was a bit on the chubby side but not enough to make her unattractive. She had curly brown hair held back by hair pins and her brown eyes were slightly hidden by her glasses. Beate Thal was more slender than Agnes and taller too. She wore her black hair almost scandalously short by Winzeldorf standards and her hazel eyes seemed to see through everything and everyone. Elke Schuh was the final member of the trio and in-between her two companions in height and weight. Her long dirty blonde hair was bound in its usual set of complex looking braids and her dark eyes could look black when she got mad which tended to happen a lot. They were all friends of Heidi's and would know the identity of her love interest.

"_Guten Tag _ladies. How are you all today?" Felix greeted wondering how in the hell he was going to find out what Wolfie wanted to know.

"_Guten Tag _Felix. We are doing quite well despite the weather." Elke replied. She was their leader when Heidi was absent and she was speaking for all of them for the moment. "Now what do you want?" She asked bluntly.

"Who says that I want anything?" Felix asked trying to sound offended.

"We're not stupid Felix. The only time that you talk to a girl is when you want something from her." Elke stated and Felix knew it was true. He sighed in defeat at all three's stern expressions.

"Alright, I need some information." He reluctantly admitted.

"Go on." Elke urged.

"A friend of mine overheard something concerning Heidi and he wishes to know more." Felix began evasively.

"What did he hear?" Elke demanded moving to stand directly in front of his face and looking very serious.

"He heard that Heidi likes someone and he's curious about who it is." Felix replied sounding more cool and confident than he felt. Elke gave him a hard look before retreating back to her friends. They huddled together and whispered for a few minutes before Elke returned.

"We can't tell you that. If you want to know who it is ask Heidi yourself if your friend is too afraid to do it himself." Elke declared and before Felix could protest the three of them walked off.

Felix sighed in frustration. Now he had to track down Heidi herself to get the answer that Wolfie desperately sought. He spun on his heel and walked back towards the spot where Wolfie waited for him. When he reached Wolfie he was forced to shake his head at his friend's hopeful expression. Disappointed, Wolfie fell in step behind him as Felix began to comb the small town in search of Heidi Feder. He knew that Wolfie was curious about what had happened with the girls but he didn't stop to enlighten him. He wanted to get this thing over with as soon as possible so that he could go home and get some more snacks. Then near the town's central, and only, fountain he found her.

"_Hallo _Heidi!" He called cheerfully as he approached her. Wolfie had faded behind a corner to wait out of sight leaving Felix alone once again in his task.

"_Hallo _Felix." She replied shyly with a blush. Felix stopped a yard short of her and stared as a feeling of foreboding washed over him. Heidi had never ever blushed when she spoke to him and he found this to be a very bad sign.

"How are you today?" He asked politely as he seated himself on the edge of the fountain next to her.

"I'm very well." She giggled and batted her eyelashes flirtatiously. Felix struggled not to wince. _This is not happening…_

"That is good to hear." He muttered. "Well there is a question that I have for you. A friend of mine overheard something, but he lacks a certain detail that you can help me with." Felix evasively explained.

"A question? Go ahead and ask it and I'll see if I want to answer." She replied suddenly looking very nervous.

"He overheard some talk that there is a boy that you like but he didn't hear who it was exactly. So first is it true and if so who is it?" Felix asked bluntly. Heidi blushed again and she couldn't meet his eyes.

"Well, yes there is a boy that I like." She answered finally still not looking directly at him.

"So who is it?" He pressed. She squirmed a little before she seemed to gather her nerve and look him straight in the eye. She opened her mouth and said one word.

"You."

* * *

Felix trudged along back home alone. After hearing Heidi's answer he'd made up some excuse that he had chores or homework to do so that he could leave. Heidi managed to extract a promise from him that they would talk more about things between them later before he left. That future meeting was not something that he was looking forward to. Heidi was very pretty and nice but he didn't care for her in the way that she seemed to be beginning to care for him. Most boys would kill to be in his position but he didn't want it. He simply didn't feel attracted to her, he never had. Why that was, was a mystery to him, that's simply the way it was.

When he ran into Wolfie he didn't know what to say. He'd read about a love triangle once in some book whose title he could not recall but he'd never imagined that he would be part of one. Wolfie like Heidi, Heidi liked him, but he didn't like Heidi that way and was Wolfie's best friend. Add that all together and the only result can be a big mess. How could he tell him that Heidi liked him and not some other boy or even that she liked Wolfie. So he lied to Wolfie and said that Heidi had refused to answer him when he questioned her. Never in his life had he ever lied to Wolfie. It left him feeling sicker than he already did.

And there was a final complication. While he had interviewed Heidi Wolfie had been approached by Arnold with a proposal. Arnold and some other boys were arranging one final camping trip before the snow came and made it impossible. Arnold's parents supported the idea and had presented it to all the other parents earlier in the day and most liked the idea. The few who objected were not Wolfie's parents or Felix's so the trip was open to both of them. Wolfie had eagerly agreed and promised to tell Felix about it. Feeling bad about his lie Felix agreed to go camping with him that weekend despite his feeling awful and the memory of his dream concerning a campfire…


	7. Burning Agony

**Chapter 6**

**Burning Agony**

The night was chilly but with the campfire blazing it was far easier to tolerate. Felix sat on a fallen log near the fire rubbing his cold, sore hands together to try and generate some extra warmth. On his left Wolfie was munching on a bag of trail mix and staring into the fire blankly. Next to Wolfie sat the freckled, red-haired Arnold who looked to be more at peace than Wolfie. Then beyond Arnold sat Axel, Arnold's distant cousin, lounged idly poking the fire with a stick. Near Axel sat Heinrich the acne plagued 17 year old with thick glasses who was deemed a nerd, he was the only one in all of Winzeldorf who had a computer. Next to Heinrich sat Balthasar, a quiet pale boy that Felix had very little contact with. On Balthasar's left sat Juli, the tough tom boy that constantly defied her parents' and other villagers' attempts to feminize her. And finally on Juli's left and his right sat Renate, the self proclaimed nature nut who went camping every time that she could. There had been a few other people who had joined this group earlier in the day, but they had declined to spend the night outdoors.

Early that morning Felix had assembled his camping pack and headed out to meet up with Wolfie. After joining up with his best friend they went to the fountain at the center of Winzeldorf to wait for everyone to show up. Besides those who were sitting around the campfire now most of the teenage population came out to participate in the days activities though they wouldn't stay the night. It took over an hour, but when they were all assembled they headed out into the woods. Another hour saw the group at the pre-selected campsite with all the tents pitched and all the bags stowed away. With all that taken care of they all settled on to the first planned activity, a hike through the woods.

The hike had been for the most part uneventful. Sometime in the middle of the hike Julius got lost somehow and so everyone split up to look for him. This dragged the hike out from being one hour to two and it made everyone grumpy. When they finally did find Johann all the teens took turns giving the idiot a piece of their mind. Felix was one of the few who were merciful in his tongue lashing of the sixteen year old. And then near the end Tomas fell into an enormous patch of mud and they had to dig him out because of the suction. Then because he was covered in sticky cold mud he had to go home so Johann had to walk him home. When Johann made it back it was time for them all to move on to the next activity, fishing.

All the girls, except Juli, bowed out of this segment of their mini camping trip. The rest of them marched out to the nearby lake that divided Winzeldorf from its nearest neighbor. The boys and Juli took their fishing poles and bait to different points at the lake's edge and began to fish. Felix liked this part of the trip the best. All he had to do was sit still for most of the time with only a few periods where he had to worry about doing anything. With his lack of energy all the time this was the perfect thing for him. He probably even fell asleep at one point, but then Wolfie decided to join him. He did nothing but talk the whole time so that Felix was kept awake until the two hours for fishing were up.

Lunch was next on the agenda and the part that Felix looked forward to the most. Everyone brought something to share. There were sandwiches of all kinds and sausages to grill over the fire. They all sat in their own little groups to eat girls on one side boys on the other. The girls giggled and gossiped over their food throwing flirtatious glances at the boys that they liked. The boys devoured their food like wolves at a kill taking breaks only to brag and tell fish stories. Around the end of their lunch hour the idiot Johann decided to make a move. He crossed the invisible line that divided them and approached Marianne, the girl usually ranked second after Heidi. He then boldly asked her out on a date which she most coldly declined sending him scampering back to his fellow males.

After lunch it was time for the scavenger hunt that a few of the parents had arranged. They divided into teams of four and went seeking the items on the list. Felix of course was paired with Wolfie and his other two partners were Arnold and Balthasar. Arnold and Wolfie were both full of energy after lunch and bounded off into the woods in search of the plants, leaves, stones, and insects on the list. Balthasar followed quickly but quietly after them leaving Felix struggling to keep up. While the others had energy to spare Felix had the energy of an old man. They scampered up the hills with ease while it was all he could do to keep them in sight. When they finally collected everything on their list Felix felt like he was going to pass out from exhaustion. The others slowed their pace on the way back to accommodate him and because of that they came in seventh place when they could've made third.

At the end of the scavenger hunt it was time to relax before dinner. Felix simply collapsed near the banked embers of the lunch fire and tried to keep the world from spinning. When he got some dinner in him he would be fine so all he could really do was wait. Wolfie, loyal friend that he was, sat down next to him and kept him company as best he could. Wolfie launched into his favorite subject, book series, and began arguing about the merits of certain characters. Wolfie's idle chatter was both comforting and annoying and at the moment it was more the former than the latter so he let him keep talking. Then everything changed when Heidi Feder decided to come and sit by Felix.

Wolfie immediately shut up and turned to stare at her in surprise. Heidi, however, was completely oblivious to anything other than Felix and that made him acutely uncomfortable. Heidi single-mindedly tried to pull Felix into a conversation while Felix did his best to avoid it. Wolfie watched this dance of words and wills as the silent spectator that only Felix seemed to be aware of. As time passed Felix watched Wolfie's expression change from surprise and bewilderment to a look of suspicion bordering on understanding. Perhaps he was suspecting Felix's lie, guessing at the truth. Felix desperately hoped not, otherwise their friendship could be damaged, maybe permanently.

Then dinner time saved his hide for the time being. Heidi was pulled away by some other girls to help with the food and Felix could relax. While he waited for the food he could feel Wolfie's eyes on him but he chose to ignore it. When the food was cooked and ready to eat Felix roused himself from his half-awake state to take his share. He probably ate a little bit of everything that was made and that caught more than Wolfie's attention. Balthasar's eyes never left Felix for very long. The pale, almost albino, boy never said a word, he simply watched as Felix downed portion after portion of whatever was handy. Balthasar's unnerving gaze only added to Felix's stress.

When dinner ended those who were not spending the night began to head back to town. They gathered in groups that contained at least one person with a flashlight before they faded into the woods like ghostly wraiths with will-o-wisp lanterns. Felix gained some measure of relief when Heidi and her circle of friends left. He no longer felt pressured by her presence and Wolfie's questioning gaze seemed lessened somehow. As the other trickled away the chatter grew quieter until it ceased completely. By the time the cloud veiled moon reached its zenith only those who were spending the night in the tents remained huddled around the crackling campfire. Since the last two people left no one had said a word.

"Hey Felix, I heard that crazy Anna invited you to her house a while back. Did you ever go?" Balthasar asked suddenly making everyone jump. Then once they realized what he said all their attention locked on Felix.

"Yes, I went." Felix sighed cracking under the pressure of the circle's combined gaze.

"So what was it like in there?" Axel asked curiously.

"Yeah, what was it like?" Arnold and Heinrich echoed.

"Well, there were some cats around, but the place didn't reek or anything." Felix reluctantly began.

"Was the house all rotted inside?" Juli wanted to know.

"Not that I could see. Everything looked old and worn down, but nothing was really falling apart." Felix replied.

"Why did she invite you over?" Renate asked.

"Just to talk I guess." Felix answered vaguely.

"Did she feed you anything?" Heinrich wondered.

"No, she didn't feed me; she just gave me some tea." Felix replied.

"What did she talk with you about?" Arnold inquired.

At this point Felix couldn't think of a good answer. He didn't want to lie again, but he didn't feel that he could tell the truth. Anna had told him such a strange story that he couldn't tell if there was any truth to it. He could tell them parts of what she said and claim that she just ranted on and on about nothing, but then he felt as though he was betraying her trust or slandering her in some way. As he racked his brains for a satisfying answer he felt a subtle pressure building in his skull. He thought it was simply the stress and strain of the day getting to him at first. Then when he realized what it really was it was already too late to do anything about it.

There was a fiery explosion somewhere deep in his brain and his vision blurred. Now he knew that this was the campfire from his dream, it looked exactly the same as how he saw it so many times. He clutched at the sides of his head and wheezed for breath. With all his strength he tried to will the pain away, but it was no use. All the odd pains that he had experienced after that first headache returned tenfold and he collapsed into a heap. His hands, feet, ankles, and low back were on fire and the muscles in them went into a spasm that made him look like he was experiencing a seizure of some kind. And now there was something new, his skin was prickly, itchy almost and his eyes ached making it hard to see. The pain built and built until he couldn't stand it anymore, it simply wouldn't stop like the other two had. So he did the only thing that he could. He blacked out.


	8. Father Hermann's Diagnosis

**Chapter 7**

**Father Hermann's Diagnosis**

Felix lay half awake, half asleep on his bed. All around him it was dark. The lights were off, the door was shut, and his shutters were closed. It was very quiet, no one was upstairs with him, they were all downstairs. He was in his bed all alone in the dark, quiet room. He debated whether or not to turn on his side and if he did turn over which way. But in his current condition he realized that he really couldn't do anything right now. He was so exhausted that he was surprised that he was still conscious. And he was in constant pain. The fleeting pains that he had been experiencing now refused to fade away. His hands, feet, and back felt like a million burning needles were being poked into them as he lay perfectly still. When he tried to move the pain exploded into infernos and threatened to send him back into the blacker darkness of unconsciousness.

He couldn't really remember what had happened after he passed out on the camping trip. His mother told him that Arnold and Axel ran for help while Wolfie tried to take care of him. The others that remained refused to go near him because they thought that he was possessed or that Anna had cast a spell on him. Wolfie knew better and tried to keep the writhing unconscious Felix from moving too much. When the two boys returned with help the adults took charge of the situation. They put Felix in his sleeping bag and carried him the two miles back to town and his home. He was carried up to his room, put him in his bed, and that is where he slept for two days straight.

Now it was Monday and there was no way beyond a miracle that he was going to make it to school. His digital clock displayed the exact time in glowing red numbers that never seemed to change. The faint glow the spread from beneath his door provided enough light for him to make out the rough outlines of his private living space. He could see his desk where he did his homework assignments every night and the worn stool that he sat on. He could make out the dim outlines of his collection of books on his set of shelves. In the corner sat his wooden dresser with its top covered in picture frames. Beyond that his room was neat, orderly, and barren. No relics of his childhood aside from photographs remained.

The dull thuds of approaching footsteps reached Felix's ears and he slowly turned to face the door. He watched the brass knob turned and heard the metallic click before it slowly creaked open. As the door opened it revealed his mother with a tray in her hands. There was a bowl on the tray, probably some sort of soup, and a cup of some kind of tea. When the door had opened wide enough she tiptoed in and stood before his bed. The light that followed her in from the hall was blinding to him so he could barely make out his mother's outline when he squinted. As his eyes adjusted his mother simply stood there and waited. When he could finally see he greeted his mother.

"_Guten Morgen Mutter._" Felix managed to croak weakly.

"_Guten Morgen _Felix. Are you feeling better today?" She asked.

"_Nein._" He replied.

"Do you think that you can take some food?" She asked softly.

"_Ja._" Felix replied.

His mother nodded and sat in a chair next to his bed that he hadn't noticed earlier. She placed the tray on his nightstand and propped him into a seating position with some extra pillows. She tried to be careful but every movement still caused him pain. Once he was settled she began to spoon feed him the warm, thick soup alternated with sips of the tea. She did this in silence, the same way that she did just about everything else. The only person that said less than her was his father. Why that was he didn't know and he never felt like asking. The soup ran out far too soon to Felix and he was about to ask for more when two new people entered his room. They were Father Freidrich Hermann and Father Johannes Drachen.

"_Guten Morgen _Felix." Father Hermann wheezed.

"_Guten Morgen _Felix." Father Drachen echoed politely.

"_Guten Morgen _Father Hermann, Father Drachen." Felix greeted in return as his mother vanished from the room.

There was only one reason for these priests to be here. His father had sent for them. Physical ailments like broken bones and viruses were things to see the doctor for, but when things began to enter the realm of mental illness his father distrusted modern medicine in favor of religion and faith. Because seizures and headaches are products of the mind his father must have decided to call on Winzeldorf's priests rather than the doctors to treats his only child. Felix wasn't sure if he agreed with his father's decision but he was in no shape to protest.

"How are you feeling this fine morning?" Father Hermann rasped as he seated himself on the edge of Felix's bed.

"Not very well." Felix replied, wishing that it was only Father Drachen who had come.

"I am sorry to hear that." Father Hermann sighed. "Do you know what happened to you Saturday night?"

"I don't remember all of it, but mother told me the rest." Felix answered.

"Do you know why it happened?" Father Hermann asked.

"No." Felix replied with a frown. _What sort of question is that?_

"What did you feel when your 'attack' happened?" Father Hermann inquired.

"It hurt a lot. It felt like I was on fire from the inside out." Felix answered.

"Did you hear anything when it happened?" Father Hermann almost demanded.

"No, I didn't hear anything." Felix replied. Father Hermann sat back and seemed to consider what he learned before speaking again.

"Are you sure that you did not hear anything?" The old priest asked.

"Yes, I am sure." Felix firmly answered.

"How odd." Father Hermann muttered to himself.

The elderly priest rose from Felix's bed and shuffled out of the room deep in thought. As soon as the old man was out of the room Felix allowed himself to relax. He wasn't sure what is was but something about Father Hermann always put him on edge. The priest was a withered old man who indulged in pipe tobacco throughout most of his life. His hair had become white and wispy and his eyebrows were thick and heavy with age. Father Hermann's skin was nothing but wrinkles upon wrinkles hanging loose in some places off his thin frail frame. The old priest's eyes while still sharp and intelligent were sunk deep into his face. Overall his aged body reminded Felix of a picture of a zombie he'd seen once.

"How has life been treating you Felix?" Father Drachen asked suddenly making Felix flinch in surprise.

Felix had completely forgotten that the younger priest was still there. Father Drachen was a newly minted priest from Berlin. He was the only person who had moved here since Felix had been born. Very few people moved to Winzeldorf from other parts of the country and no one from another country had ever moved here. The dark-haired priest was considered an outsider by most adults but most of the younger generation preferred him to the walking mummy of Father Hermann. The few masses that Felix had seen him conduct were more interesting and entertaining than anything that Father Hermann had done. In Felix's humble opinion Father Drachen was the better priest not that his father would agree with him.

"Not very well at all." Felix sighed tiredly, sinking back into his bed.

"I'm sorry to hear that. Hopefully things will start to get better soon." Father Drachen soothed.

"I hope so too." Felix mumbled. Before they could speak further Father Hermann called Father Drachen out into the hall. Felix knew he shouldn't, but he strained his ears to try and hear what they were saying.

"What do you think?" He heard Father Hermann ask.

"He seems to be very sick but otherwise the same as he usually is." Father Drachen replied.

"I am not so sure of that." Father Hermann countered.

"Oh, what makes you think that?" Father Drachen asked.

"The only thing that doesn't fit is that he hasn't heard any strange voices." Father Hermann seemed to say to himself.

"I don't think that I follow you Father." Father Drachen sighed.

"It's very obvious to me. This boy is suffering from the early stages of demonic possession. Normally strange voices are reported first but it is quite possible that the demon has remained silent so far." Father Hermann patiently explained.

"Are you certain?" Father Drachen sounded as incredulous as Felix felt upon hearing that.

"Yes I am." Father Hermann confidently replied.

"So what are you going to tell Felix and his parents?" Father Drachen hesitantly asked.

"I will tell them that I believe that Felix is suffering from some early stage of demonic possession and that I recommend that an exorcism be performed as soon as possible." Father Hermann declared. Felix closed his eyes and slumped deep into his bed. _Oh schiβe…_


	9. Hellfire and Brimstone

**Chapter 8**

**Hellfire and Brimstone**

Felix looked grimly out his bedroom window at the sunset. The sun itself had just slipped beyond the horizon. The rays that remained visible painted the thin layer of clouds a beautiful range of yellows, oranges, and pinks. The view he had was very nice, but he really didn't see it. The natural beauty failed to reach him. He was trapped in his own dark little world of fear and foreboding. Today was October 8th, a Sunday. Most other years this date was meaningless, just another day in October. But this year this particular date took on a dark significance to him. Today was the date set for his exorcism.

In one hour both Father Hermann and Father Drachen would come to his home. They would perform all sorts of blessings on his house and the people in it. Then they would go through the mysterious rituals of exorcism and hope that his problem would be cleared up. If everything went well nothing would happen and Felix would be free to go on with his life. With every fiber of his being he prayed that that was the outcome of tonight's religious ritual. But deep down inside he feared that the worst would happen. That during the exorcism that he would suffer another attack and something bad would happen. Anna's grim warning of painful life-altering change made him shudder.

With a sigh he stiffly rose up off his stool and hobbled away from his window. Very slowly and stiffly he limped down the stairs and took a seat on the couch in the living room. While he had recovered some strength since the camping trip, but he still was in constant pain so he hadn't been able to attend school all week. Because of his pain his mother had wanted to bring in a doctor to look at him, but his father had refused her. He seemed to have latched onto the idea that his son was possessed by a demon and that an exorcism would fix everything. Just this once Felix wished that his mother would stick up for herself and call a doctor over. At least that way he might get a prescription for some strong pain medication.

He could hear his mother bustling about in the kitchen. She was probably making snacks and tea for the visiting priests like the perfect home-maker that she was. Felix peered at the grandfather clock just outside the living room and saw that he still had a half an hour left until his exorcism. Now that he was ready and waiting time would crawl by slower than a frozen snail. So what should he do? Should he just sit on the couch and wait? Or should he hobble around his house to try and waste some time? It was a difficult decision for him to make. If he sat sit he would waster precious energy and cause his poor battered body unnecessary pain. If he went for a walk his slow limping gait would waste time and distract him from worry.

Then quite suddenly his internal debate became pointless as both priest walked through the door. Felix glanced at the tall wooden clock to see that he had been so absorbed in his thoughts that the half hour was almost completely past. Slightly embarrassed by his inattention Felix stiffened up in his seat and waited for everything to be settled. His mother welcomed the two priests into the house while his father emerged from his basement workshop. Felix watched passively from his seat as the four adults greeted each other and spoke in hushed tones. And when that was through it was time for Winzeldorf's first ever exorcism.

From that point on things went more or less as he had predicted that they would. Father Hermann went to every room, door, and window in the house and blessed them. He said prayers and dabbed signs of the cross in holy water on anything in reach. Then the old man held a sort of private Mass complete with Bible readings and Communion. During all of this Father Drachen played the role of assistant and his parents were the witnesses. Felix didn't both moving from his seat unless Father Hermann told him to. He simply sat and awaited his fate, whatever it might turn out to be. And he didn't have long to wait.

Father Hermann concluded the mini Mass and moved onto the second phase. The elderly priest began the long arduous process of blessing Felix directly. He performed several different blessings with holy water and blessed oil that was normally reserved for christenings. He prayed the entire rosary while keeping one hand on Felix's shoulder. He read verses from several different books of the Bible. Then he moved his withered bony hand to hold the top of Felix's head and began to call on the Almighty God and His angels to cast out the malign influence that afflicted Felix. At first this was just fine by Felix. While Father Hermann's grip was a bit tight he felt no other additional discomfort. But then the bottom dropped out so to speak.

Somewhere deep inside his skull there was a tiny thread. Before his first headache it used to be a wall and with each successive migraine and weak spell it was worn down, made smaller. Now as Father Hermann continued to loudly appeal to God and His heavenly servants he squeezed Felix's head tighter and tighter. This fed his stress and it sent the pressure in his head ratcheting up bit by bit. Felix tried to force it back; he couldn't afford to fall into convulsions like he had before now. Despite the rising pain Felix tried to remain still and stoic, but it did him no good. The pressure hit a critical level and that tiny thread snapped under the strain.

It started out the same way that the all the others had. His head hurt horribly and the pain in his hands, feet, and lower back swiftly intensified. Felix tried valiantly to hold still but his body refused to obey him. Once more he slipped into seizure-like convulsions, but this time he didn't black out. The pain grew so bad that Felix felt himself becoming detached from himself. All his senses grew fuzzy and distant. Sounds seemed muffled, his vision was so blurry that all he saw were blobs of color, and the intense pains seemed to recede. As the pain faded into the background Felix wanted to smile in relief, but his body was too busy screaming.

Then came the changes. First he felt the bones in his hands and lower legs begin to grind and shift against each other. Then it felt like someone had grabbed his tailbone and yanked it out, stretching his spine out as it went. His eyes burned and for a moment he thought he went blind. His teeth hurt and he tasted his own blood in his mouth. Then his skin began to itch and tingle. With all his uncontrollable thrashings he couldn't scratch himself and his detached mind found that vaguely frustrating. Then something strange happened to his very itchy skin. It felt like it was covered in stubble everywhere, and the hair just kept growing. His separated thoughts began to grow dim like he was falling asleep, but his body had one more thing that it had to do.

The panicked screams of his family suddenly became sharp and clear to his previously impaired hearing. It startled his muddled mind and he wanted to be somewhere else, like that one spot out in the woods where this whole mess started. As soon as that image crystallized in his mind some switch was flipped inside his brain and something happened. The floor disappeared beneath him and he was sucked up, around, and inside out. There was a flash of fiery light and a blasting vortex of air and he fell. He hit the ground hard and was overwhelmed by the sulfurous stink of brimstone. As his consciousness drifted away into blackness he thought one final thought. _Oh God I've fallen down into Hell…_

* * *

Somewhere a raven was crying in its raspy voice. It hurt his head a lot. He decided that he didn't like the noisy raven. The large noisy bird must've hopped closer to him because it was getting louder. With his eyes still closed he groped around for something solid and found something hard, prickly, but light, a pinecone. He closed his hand around it and weakly tossed it in the direction that he thought the raven was in. It shrieked and flapped away scolding him from the safety of some high place. He groaned in a mixture of annoyance and pain. The stupid loud raven had woken him up and now he was remembering.

Felix slowly cracked open one eye and looked around. He was in the clearing were he'd had his first migraine. The smell of pine was far stronger than he remembered it being and he smelled more musty faint scents beneath it. The light was very bright so he knew that it was daytime though the shadows didn't seem to be as dark as they should. The edges of the objects were sharper than he'd ever seen them before. It as like he'd had a blinder on his sense of sight and smell and it had just been removed. Therefore this must be some sort of dream. But that theory went right out the window when he tried to move.

A wave of pain crashed over him and destroyed his belief that he was dreaming. Felix never felt pain when he was dreaming. So he was awake in the middle of the woods. Faint memories of last night's exorcism filtered back as he sought an explanation for why he was out here. He recalled feeling really awful, like his body was being reshaped somehow, and then he experienced some sort of motion and he passed out. Beyond that he wasn't certain of anything. Everything was just a jumbled blur of color, pain, and screaming. Just like the final scene from his dream. Only one thing had yet to come to pass. _Death…_

Felix shuddered and tried to think of something else, anything else to forget that one word. First things first, he had to get up. He clenched his teeth and levered himself up slowly into a sitting position. His eyes were squeezed shut and his arms trembled as he tried to stay upright while his spinning head tried to reorder itself. Everything was stiff, sore, and weak. His legs throbbed beneath him, his arms and hands burned, and his spine felt very strange. As the dizziness passed he gathered his nerve and opened both his eyes.

The first thing that he saw both horrified and fascinated him. Where his hand should've been was a stranger's hand. There were only three digits, a thumb and two fingers, and it was completely covered in fine red fur. Each finger was nearly as thick as two normal fingers and they were definitely longer than normal fingers. Hesitantly he reached out with one hand to touch this other hand and was shocked. The hand that entered his field of vision to touch the foreign hand looked exactly the same. That hand wasn't a stranger's hand, it was his own. Numb with shock and horror Felix slumped back down to the ground. _I've become a monster._

A crunching sound reached his ears, but he ignored it. The sound repeated itself over and over in the pattern of footsteps, someone was coming. Still Felix did not move; he was still reeling from what he'd just seen. The raven that had been harassing him fled with a cry of fear and the footsteps drew nearer. He heard a loud gasp and turned his head slowly to see who had found him. There on the edge of the clearing stood _Herr _Grumman with his hunting rifle looking as shocked and horrified as he felt. Felix simply lay there and watched the frightened hunter creep up to him. And Felix had no reaction when _Herr _Grumman hefted his rifle over his head and brought it down like a club on Felix's skull.


	10. Azazel

**Chapter 9**

**Azazel**

Felix lay limply on the hard, cold, concrete of Winzeldorf's only jail cell. After _Herr _Grumman had clubbed him unconscious with his hunting rifle he'd been brought here and locked up. How long he'd been here he didn't know nor did he care. He had changed into something monstrous and frightening. There was no place for him anymore. He was no longer human, he was something else. He wasn't a man, and he wasn't an animal, so his death was assured. Now he understood the final part of his dream. He had metamorphosized into a demon and soon they would kill him. His life was essentially over so why bother trying.

The metal door to the room suddenly creaked open with a rusty groan. Felix remained where he was staring blankly at the gray back wall. He heard a pair of footsteps walk into the room and pause before the bars of his cell. He was prepared to ignore his visitor until he heard the mewl of a cat. Stiffly he rolled over to be confronted by a pair of emerald eyes. It was Anna's black cat Maxi. And where Anna's cats were, Anna herself must be close by. Sure enough, when he looked past the cat, there stood Anna on the other side of the black bars.

"_Hallo _Felix." Anna said quietly. "Have they been treating you well?"

"Does it really matter?" Felix croaked.

"Of course it does. You have just as much right to be treated fairly as anyone else." Anna declared.

"Well you're the only one who thinks so." Felix mumbled bitterly.

"I know." Anna sighed and crouched down to be at eye-level with him.

"What will happen to me now Anna?" Felix whispered sadly.

"It is hard for me to say. Your immediate fate is swiftly approaching and it might not be what you expect it to be. Beyond that the future is too liquid for me to see truly, it all depends on the choices you and others make." Anna replied softly.

Felix was confused. Anna spoke like he was going to survive his imprisonment. He knew he wasn't going to make it. They would kill him when they worked up the nerve. Until then it was simply a matter of time. Anna wasn't crazy or stupid like most people seemed to think so she should know this as well. Perhaps she had seen something in one of her visions that told her that he would live. Stiffly, awkwardly he moved into a sitting position facing Anna. Her black cat Maxi slipped between the bars and padded forward to sniff him before rubbing itself against his knee.

"So what do you think I should do?" Felix inquired.

"Take good care of yourself; don't carelessly throw your life away. Experiment, see what you are now capable of, find your new limits. And never forget the lessons of the war; do not let yourself become a vessel of hate for it shall destroy you." Anna solemnly proclaimed. "Now come along Maxi, I believe our time here is up." She cooed to her cat. It glanced back at her, seemed to seriously consider whether or not to listen, before it trotted away back to Anna's arms. "_Auf wiedersehen._"

Anna rose stiffly, her traitorous joints betraying her age. She gave him one last sad look before turning away and leaving. The last thing that Felix noticed about Anna was that she wore a new flower behind her ear, a black silk rose. He'd never seen a flower that color behind Anna's ear. She wore all sorts of colored flowers with little care whether they matched other articles of clothing or not. Once he's seen her in all black with a sprig of tiny white flowers. Another time she'd worn a demure brown dress with a deep red carnation. What influenced her choice in flowers he didn't really know; his best guess what that it somehow was a reflection of her mood at the time.

The rusty metal door clanged shut and Felix was alone once more. His eyes drifted shut and he sighed bitterly. Now what was he supposed to do? His previous lethargy and apathy had been erased by Anna's visit and now he found that he was bored. He was sore, tired, and hungry too, but right now he was more bored than anything else. He shifted restlessly taking note of each any every sore muscle as each made its condition known to the connected nerves. First he stretched his arms in all directions and rolled his shoulders. Then he rotated his head and neck in circles until the stiffness faded. And then he twisted his torso and arched his back until he heard a faint crack. But when he came to his lower half he ran into some trouble.

As he stretched his legs out in front of him to continue his stretches he saw his feet for the first time. His old worn out shoes had burst open at the toes and soles to reveal his stocking covered feet. His feet had apparently almost doubled their shoe size and they looked oddly shaped. Slowly Felix reached down to remove the ruined remains of his shoes and his socks. When his hand came into view he was shocked until he remembered that that was what his hand looked like now. Carefully he undid his laces and teased off the shredded remains of his sneakers before he was able to peel off his stretched out socks. What he saw was quite shocking to him.

He only had two toes. He closed his eyes and shook his head before looking again. There were still only two toes. They were thicker and much longer than normal toes. In fact, they looked almost exactly the same as his fingers. His foot was longer too and it looked like there was a smaller third toe on the inside of each ankle. Experimentally he tried to move the smaller toe on his right foot and watched it twitch and flex a little. Then he curled his other two toes and studied how they moved feeling both horrified and fascinated. As he stared at his deformed, red-furred feet he wondered how much worse his metamorphosis would turn out to be.

Before he could explore his new appearance further the metal door swung open again. In the doorway stood three people, _Herr _Katzen the sheriff, Heidi Feder, and Wolfgang Kleinfeld. _Herr _Katzen held a dented metal tray with some very plain looking food on it. The sight of food reminded Felix that he was hungry, very hungry. Both Wolfie and Heidi looked frightened, but determined until they saw that he was awake and looking at them. Heidi darted behind Wolfie seeking protection from the monster and Wolfie visibly paled. _Herr _Katzen slowly approached the bars, lowered the tray to the floor, and slid it through a slot just wide enough for the tray and its contents as he scrambled back. Then the sheriff whispered something to the two teens and departed.

Felix sat perfectly still and watched them wondering why they were here. Wolfie stared back, his pale face and tight expression the only clues that he was afraid. Heidi was obviously terrified by his appearance as she cowered in Wolfie's shadow, her blue eyes dilated with fear. Felix almost laughed out loud at the irony. Just over a week ago she admitted that she had a crush on him and today she was frightened by the very sight of him. After several minutes of staring hunger won over Felix's curiosity and he clumsily scrambled over to the food tray and began to speedily eat. The silence grew oppressive.

"What are you?" Wolfie abruptly demanded. Felix paused in devouring his meal and contemplated whether or not to answer.

"Wolfie, don't." Heidi whimpered, obviously terrified.

"Why not? Felix is gone, something happened to him and I'm sure this things knows something about it." Wolfie snapped giving further evidence to his nervousness.

"So? Don't make it angry. It might do something to us." Heidi whispered loudly. Felix resisted an urge to snort at that.

"I don't care if it can, I want some answers!" Wolfie declared forcefully.

"You want answers?" Felix asked between bites of stale bread. Out of the corner of his eye he watched both of them jump.

"Yes, I do." Wolfie confirmed.

"Answers to what?" Felix inquired looking up from the tray at them.

"What happened to Felix Sunday night?" Wolfie demanded bluntly.

"Good question. Too bad I don't know the answer to that." Felix replied polishing off the last of the food.

"Bullshit!" Wolfie snarled viciously.

"What filthy language, if your mother heard it she would smack you silly." Felix commented trying to hide his surprise at his friend's unexpected outburst.

"Don't you dare talk about my mother!" Wolfie snapped.

"Sorry, my mistake." Felix murmured.

"You should be sorry! If I find out that you did _anything _to Felix you're dog meat!" Wolfie threatened.

"Oh, I'm so scared." Felix muttered sarcastically.

"You should be." Wolfie proclaimed confidently. This time Felix did snort.

"I could very well be 'dog meat', but you won't be the one turning me into it. You were never a fighter. You couldn't even bring yourself to hit the piñata at Johann's ninth birthday party." Felix snorted. Wolfie was now whiter than a sheet.

"How did you know that?" He asked faintly. Felix simply stared back at him. He was unsure of how he could explain things so he decided that it was best if he didn't say anything at all.

"Wolfie, let's just go." Heidi whimpered fearfully tugging on his sleeve.

"How did you know that?" Wolfie demanded.

"Why don't you talk with Anna Gartner? She knows many interesting things and she never gets enough company." Felix suggested.

Wolfie looked like he was going to say something else but Heidi began to drag him from the room and he gave in. The metal door opened and closed and both teens vanished leaving Felix alone again. He sighed and shoved the empty food tray back through its gap so hard that it banged against the opposite wall. The sheriff exploded back into the room with his nightstick gripped tightly in both hands looking around wildly. Felix fought back a snicker as he pointed towards the metal tray. _Herr _Katzen gave him a venomous look before taking the empty tray away and leaving the room.

Now what was he going to do? Now that his hunger had been lessened and his company had left his boredom returned full force. He could start thinking, but his thoughts right now would be dark and depressing, so he decided to pace his tiny cell for a while. He gathered his oddly shaped feet underneath him and attempted to stand up, but ended up toppling over onto his face. He frowned and tried again holding onto the edge of the wooden plank that served the cell for a bed. This time he was able to stay on his feet, but it somehow didn't feel right. In fact it almost hurt to keep his feet flat on the floor.

Felix tried to take a step towards the bars and suddenly found himself off balance. No matter how many times he tried he kept falling down like he was drunk. He found it highly frustrating and let loose an animalistic growl from his throat. Shocked by the sound that he made he froze before starting over. He carefully studied his legs, bending and extending them several times. Then he gathered his feet beneath him and stood up again. This time when he tried to take a step he stood on the balls of his feet like a four-legged animal does instead of flat-footed like a person. He managed two steps before he lost his balance again somehow and toppled to the floor.

He was nearing the end of his patience with this particular exercise. Something was throwing off his balance making him stumble and fall like a drunk. Angrily he smacked the floor and yelped in pain. He'd hit part of himself instead of the floor and it hurt a lot. When the pain faded he realized that he hadn't hit any part of his legs like he thought he had. So what did he hit? Felix turned his head and spied something long, thin, and red. As he watched it, it twitched and curled like a boneless snake. At one end of the red thing was a triangle shape, like a spear or arrowhead. Then as he looked for the other end he found himself shocked again. The red thing was sprouting out of his behind. It was some sort of devil tail.

Before he could deal with this new horrifying discovery the door opened yet again to admit more visitors. This time his guests were his own parents and the two priests. His mother was clinging to his father's arm and he was supporting her with his free one. They took two steps into the room and stopped. They stood perfectly still and simply stared at him. Felix wanted to tell them to stop, but his obedience and subservience to his parents was ingrained too deep for him to disobey it. So he sat and waited for them to be finished like the good, obedient son that he was. After some length of time they appeared to be finished and left the room.

But as soon as his parents left the room Father Hermann and Father Drachen entered. Father Hermann looked grave as always and looked at Felix with no readable emotion. The withered old man was in full priestly attire looking like he was ready to attend Mass and not visiting a jail cell. Father Drachen was also dressed for Mass and his arms held a bowl and a Bible. The younger man was visibly nervous and he almost dropped the bowl when he held it out to Father Hermann. Felix sighed and sat cross-legged in the center of his cell facing the priests. He easily guessed what was coming.

Father Hermann began with the Lord 's Prayer in his raspy smoke-ruined voice raising his hands in an appeal to the Almighty. After he finished he dipped hid hand into the bowl, holy water Felix guessed, and made the sign of the cross in the air with his wet fingertips. Then the old man began flicking the blessed water into the cell. Most of them hit Felix in the face, but he didn't flinch. Father Hermann continued blessing and praying for a while as Father Drachen assisted. The entire time this went on Felix simply sat and stared at them wondering if his staring would frighten them. Now that he didn't have to talk to the dinosaur of a priest he had little fear of the man.

When they finally finished they retreated from the room and once again Felix was alone. He was sick of experimenting and exploring for the moment so he awkwardly crawled up on the hard cot. There was no mattress or pillow, just a sheet laid over a plywood board on legs. It was hard and uncomfortable, but not as hard and uncomfortable as the concrete floor. Felix curled up on his side facing the blank gray wall and closed his eyes. A little nap sounded good right about now. And about five minutes later he was asleep.

* * *

The village hall was packed tonight. Felix couldn't remember the last time that he saw so many people in the same place outside of Church. Every seat was filled and many more stood along the edges of the room. He bet that there were people crowding at the front doors too, but from where he was standing that was impossible to see. The massive room was filled with the echoes of whispered thoughts and mumbled rumors as the assembled crowd waited for the meeting to begin. Felix was waiting for the town meeting to start too only his attendance was mandatory.

He sat sprawled on the floor of a small chamber behind the stage. He was bound by a crude, makeshift set of shackles that were little more than chains twisted into loops held closed by electrical wires. The loops bound his wrists together, encircled his neck, and hobbled his legs making any sort of flight impossible. One either side of him stood very nervous, muscular men who held his chains and were itching for any excuse to jerk them. Felix, however, was the model prisoner so he had very little to worry about. Then the volume from the hall dropped to zero as the mayor, _Herr _Reicher, ascended the stage.

"Fellow citizens of Winzeldorf. Last Sunday a strange and terrible event occurred. Today Father Hermann will tell us what happened so that all these cruel rumors can be put to rest." _Herr _Reicher declared. He abandoned the podium and the elder priest of Winzeldorf took the microphone.

"The Monday of that week," Father Hermann began in his raspy voice. "I was approached by _Herr _Hausmann to look at his son, Felix, who seemed to have a strange affliction. I agreed and Father Drachen and I went to the Hausmann home. There we examined Felix and I determined that he was most likely suffering from some sort of demonic possession. It was arranged that we would return and perform an exorcism Sunday night. When that day came we performed the exorcism with little problem until the final stage was reached." Father Hermann paused, coughed hard for a minute, and took a sip of water from a glass Father Drachen provided before continuing.

"Felix began to convulse as the demon began to be affected by the power of the Almighty God. Then instead of being cast out of its mortal vessel like it was supposed to, it began to change its mortal vessel to reflect its corrupt presence. As the transformation seemed to be complete there was a flash of fire and a blast of brimstone and the monster vanished. Later we learned that _Herr _Grumman came across it in the woods and captured it. Since then, the demon has been held in the jail." The old priest stopped again and waited for the shocked whisperings to subside. When it finally grew quiet the old man spoke again.

"Tonight you shall see the beast that has taken Felix Hausmann's life and I shall reveal its nature to you." He declared and gave a hand signal to Felix's guards.

The men lifted him by his armpits and dragged him out of the back room and onto the stage. His appearance was met by screams of horror and disgust and half the room panicked. They stood up and tried to flee from the 'monster' but those who remained sitting blocked their way. It took over twenty minutes before things were calm again. Felix watched all of this in silence trying to decide whether to be depressed or disgusted. What were they afraid of? Couldn't they see that he was in chains? What fools they all were.

"Calm yourselves and look at this creature!" Father Hermann demanded forcefully. "Remember its face, for it is the demon Azazel and today, October 10th, is his day. Today is his day when the ancient Jews would cast out a goat from their village filled with their sins sending it into his care. Now, on his own day, we shall cast him out of our town to be exiled forever more!" The old priest decreed.

The crowd gave a cheer and thunderous applause as he was dragged away. It seemed that they wouldn't kill him after all, they were simply throwing him out of town permanently. So Anna had been right about his future, he would still have one. He would be stuck out in the woods for however long he managed to survive. He would be at the mercy of nature unable to depend on any human being for help. His dream said nothing about this future, only death, and now he understood. _Felix Hausmann is dead… Long live Azazel._


	11. Exile

**Chapter 10**

**Exile**

Azazel crouched silently among the pine trees. The people that tossed him out here were long gone, but he didn't feel that it was safe enough to move just yet. It was a dark and cold October night and unfortunately he wasn't dressed for it. His shirt and pants were torn and thin but he didn't feel as cold as he thought he should, it must be the fur. Normally when he could see his breath he needed a thick sweatshirt, but right now he only felt slightly cooler than normal. While that was most definitely a good thing in his current situation it didn't cheer him up any.

An owl hooted somewhere jolting Azazel out of his thoughts. All around him were trees, trees, and more trees. But something about what he was seeing didn't look quite right. According to his wrist watch it was past midnight but to his eyes it looked more like it was noon on a very cloudy day. There were no deep shadows that he couldn't see through and that made no sense at all. He saw no colors, only shades of gray. It was almost like he was looking through night vision goggles without the green tint. Maybe he could see in the dark now. Or maybe his eyes were just messed up. He had no way to know for certain.

Slowly Azazel stood swaying a little bit, still unused to his altered balance. He rubbed at his wrists and neck where the chains had been wincing when he touched raw spots. He'd only had this fur for three days and already he had bald spots. Yet another bit of bad luck to add to his impressive collection. With a sigh he began stretching out his limbs while trying not to lose his balance. He started from the top and worked his way down. The arms came first, then the head and neck. But as he was un-kinking his back he caught sight of his worst new feature, his tail.

Of all the changes in his body that was by far the worst. It was messed with his sense of balance, it tripped him up, and it was very sensitive. Every time it brushed against something he would feel it and it was driving him nuts. And the worst part was that when he tried to control the damn thing it twitched like crazy and touched even more stuff. He snarled in frustration, but the sound that came out of his throat was more animal than human and it made him flinch. Not only did he not look human anymore, he apparently didn't sound human anymore either.

He sighed, feeling rather depressed. Well, now that he was banned from town he should figure out which way was home and go in the opposite direction. So how did you figure out your location in the dark? With the forest as dense as it was not enough sunlight penetrated the canopy to make the moss on the trees grow on only one side so his best bet was to do some stargazing. But again the dense canopy presented a problem. How do you see stars when the trees block your way? Climb the trees of course, and that was what Azazel had to do now. So without further ado he selected a nearby tree and tried to climb it.

His first attempt was less than successful. While the tree looked the easiest to climb of all the nearby pines, none of the branches were close enough for him to reach from the ground. He circled the trunk but failed to find any good handholds to cling to. So he tried to climb the tree liked he'd seen a monkey do once in a biology class video. He wrapped his hands up high around the trunk and tried to jump up with his feet. For a second his grip held, but then he slid right back down to land painfully on his tail. Azazel howled in pain and flailed around until it stopped hurting.

When it did stop he tried to climb the tree again. He started out the same way as before only this time he pressed harder with his fingertips and feet against the tree trunk. Surprisingly his grip held this time and he slowly inched up moving hand over hand. Once he reached a branch strong enough to bear his weight he abandoned creeping up the trunk to clambering up the branches. He'd always been good at climbing trees, if the branches were set at the right level he could get up to the top in five minutes at the most. This time he was a bit on the slow side on account of his troublesome tail. It kept wrapping itself around branches.

It ended up taking him over ten minutes to break free of the shelter of the canopy, far longer than he was used to. But the view was well worth the trouble. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was a full moon tonight. However, something was wrong with what he was seeing. He checked his watch again, it read about 12:30. It looked almost as bright as day out here but the moon and stars were out. Azazel frowned and pondered this odd new twist. He really didn't think that he was seeing things. Maybe he really did have night vision now.

The stars above were strange looking to his new eyes but thankfully still recognizable. In seconds he located the north star and easily determined the three other directions. In his mind he added in the direction that he had been dragged and compared it to the view that he had up at the top of the tree. He'd been pulled along from town from the southwest so he should head northeast. But as he was figuring this out, a funny thing happened to him.

He felt what he thought was a breeze, but he noticed that no branches or leaves were moving. It came from behind him and seemed to flow through him towards the north star. The more he focused on the sensation, the more solid and subtle it became in his mind. It was like a river of charged air that was invisible to the eye. For some reason, it reminded him of compasses and his physics class. A magnetic field surrounds the earth and its energy flows from south to north. The 'breeze' he felt came the south and flowed north. Could he be sensing the earth's magnetic field?

It was a crazy idea, but with all the crap that had been happening to him lately it just might be true. For now he decided to believe that that's what he was feeling and use it like his own internal compass. With his direction nailed down Azazel slipped down the tree without much of a problem, his tail only got caught once. When he reached the lowest branch he forgot about the drop and let go. The instant he began to fall he realized his mistake and panicked. But when he hit the ground there was no broken ankle, strained knee, or any real pain at all. He just dropped almost ten feet and nothing hurt. This was just plain insane.

First it was the night vision. Then it was the magnetic sense. And now he could survive a fall that would normally disable another person. Add this to his changed appearance and being cast out of town and it was too much for one day. Azazel stumbled along still thrown off by his tail and found a sheltered spot next to a fallen log. He cleared away some dead leaves and curled up awkwardly in the makeshift nest. It was late and what he needed most of all at this point was rest. When the sun came up tomorrow he would move on. His mind made up he closed his eyes and promptly fell asleep.

* * *

One week, one miserable week since he had been exiled, and Azazel hadn't gotten anywhere. He wasn't exactly lost; he'd followed his sense in the same direction without fail. He just hadn't gotten to anyplace useful to him. He hadn't eaten anything beyond some bitter berries that gave him a stomachache two days ago. He could barely stand and the stream water that he'd been drinking had probably made him sick. His head hurt and if he'd had anything in his stomach he would've thrown it up. _Gott, why didn't they just kill me?_

Azazel drunkenly staggered from tree to tree faithfully following the course that he had set for himself. When he stumbled and fell he would wait for his head to stop spinning before getting up and continuing on. When he had to dry heave he waited until he could stand up straight before he dared to keep walking. When he grew too tired to keep on his feet he would take a cat nap in the most secluded place handy. Despite his increasingly poor condition he knew he had to keep moving no matter what. If any hunter from Winzeldorf caught up with him he was dead and over the past week his desire to live had been renewed.

He couldn't help but laugh out loud. When he was hurting from his headaches he wished he would die. When the change happened, and shortly thereafter, he wanted to die. Now that he was sick he wanted to die, and yet he kept going. While he longed for the simplicity and release of death he also wanted so badly to live. His life was just turning into a study of irony. The obedient son of very religious parents gains the affections of the most sought after girl in town. Then he turns into a demon, is disowned, and cast out of town forever. If that wasn't irony, then he was a five year old girl named Lana.

Mechanically he forged ahead, step by step. He ignored the trees as they blurred and danced before his eyes. He ignored the yellowed pine needles as they wrapped around his ankles like spaghetti noodle boa constrictors. He ignored the raven that had landed on his back and was pecking out his brains. He ignored the piranha-toothed squirrel that had latched onto his tail. He ignored the wraith-like wasps that stung his eyes and buzzed in his ears. He ignored the ground tilting up to hit his face. And he ignored the blue-skinned woman with the fire-hair and the misty gray eyes who watched him from the distance. All that mattered was the magnetic flow that whooshed through his head and he had to follow it. And he did follow it, right into the endless ocean of black.


	12. Mystique of the Raven

**Chapter 11**

**Mystique of the Raven**

Azazel was sick. His head pounded and buzzed as his body burned with fever. His red fur, filthy from being outdoors for so long without bathing, was plastered to his skin with sweat. Every muscle in his body ached like he'd been lifting weights for two days straight. His stomach hurt badly, but he didn't feel like throwing up anymore. There were periods when he would start to tremble for no apparent reason and not be able to stop for many minutes. His throat was sore and swollen making it uncomfortable to swallow. He felt completely exhausted, but he couldn't sleep anymore, so he laid half-conscious in the darkness.

Only it wasn't completely dark, not to his eyes. There was just enough light filtering in from the edges of the rectangular door for him to see things clearly. The small room or chamber that he was in was lit by an eerie gray glow that made everything look fuzzy and surreal. He was lying on a pile of crackly straw that smelled musty and made noise with even the slightest movements. Beyond the straw there was nothing else besides the walls around him and roof over his head. The room wasn't very large, barely long enough and wide enough for him to stretch out completely in any direction, and the floor was simply packed earth. From what he could see this was just a tool shack sans tools.

While he was still sick, his fever had dropped enough for him to be lucid instead of delirious like he had been the last time he was conscious. No longer did ordinary inanimate objects move on their own and try to attack him. He was now completely back in the real world instead of hovering between it and insanity. And now that he was completely in his right mind, he began to wonder. What time was it? From the darkness he guessed that it was sometime at night but he couldn't be sure. How had he gotten here? And where was here? Had he been brought here by someone, or had he somehow gotten here under his own power and simply blacked out during that episode? And, most importantly, what was going to happen to him now?

Thankfully he did not have long to wait. The door to his shack, a vaguely defined gray rectangle on one wall, suddenly opened. Weak gray light flooded in, silhouetting a human figure that looked female, but he couldn't be sure. The figure silently approached him with the grace and stealth of a jungle cat and a swaying walk that Azazel had only seen in a single film that had later been deemed hideously immoral by the elders of Winzeldorf society. If this person wasn't a woman then it was a very, very strange man, which he highly doubted. As the probable woman crouched down before him, Azazel remembered the last thing he remembered seeing, the woman. Was this person her?

There was a click and the dim shack was flooded with intense bright light that temporarily blinded Azazel. His eyes were used to gathering every photon of light and enhancing it to see in the darkness, so when a new powerful source of light appeared it overwhelmed his eyes and caused him pain. It took several minutes for his sight to return and when it did the first thing that he saw was a large flashlight. The flashlight was high quality, projecting a clean white light instead of the faintly yellow tinted light that he was used to seeing in his family's own flashlight. And with this clean white light the colors returned so he looked around once more to update his understanding of his surroundings.

The wooden door to the shack was now closed, he noticed, and there was a woman crouched before him. She was obviously older than he was, probably in her mid to late twenties. Her features were the closest to perfect that he had ever seen in his life. Her skin was pale with an impossibly clear complexion. Her hair was long, black, and slightly wavy and it was not styled in any way as far as he could tell. She wore a pale pastel dress that was an odd blend of modern and traditional styles that covered most of her body and gave her a dignified, aristocratic appearance. Her hands were delicate and free of calluses and he noticed that she wore a wedding band. Basically she outshone both Heidi and his mother in his mind. But her beauty and social status made Azazel wonder. What was a rich married woman doing out here in a tool shed with a creature like him?

"You have finally awoken." The woman purred in a rich cultured voice.

"Finally?" Azazel croaked weakly. What did she mean 'finally'?

"You have been asleep or delirious for three whole days." She replied.

"Three whole days." He muttered to himself in disbelief.

"Yes. In fact, you were asleep for so long that I feared that you would never wake." She replied, studying him with an unreadable expression.

"Why are you helping me?" He asked after a long moment.

"How do you know that I am helping you?" She countered.

"Well I'm not in a science lab being cut open, I'm not in cage or in chains, and I'm not still out in the woods waiting to die. If you weren't helping me then I would be in one of those places." He answered after a few moments of thought.

"That is true." She conceded. "But perhaps I have hidden motivations that in the future will lead you to such a fate."

"I suppose." Azazel agreed. "But at the moment you seem to be helping me. Now why are you appearing to help me?"

"You interest me and I felt it would be a shame if I left you to die." The woman answered finally.

"Shouldn't you be afraid of me?" Azazel wondered.

"What is there to be afraid of? A half-dead boy? I think not." She scoffed. Azazel tried to say something in his own defense, but she stopped him with an upraised hand. "Now stay quiet, you need to save your strength if you wish to fully recover."

Azazel fell silent and watched the woman with an intense questioning gaze. She ignored his look and rifled through a small sack that she had brought with her. She pulled out a container of microwaveable soup; it looked like chicken and beef, and began to feed him. The soup tasted wonderful, especially after what little he had eaten in the last week. Every spoonful went to fill the aching hole in his gut and warmed his insides pleasantly. The chunks of meat in it were small and so tender they seemed to dissolve in his mouth.

By the time the soup bowl was empty Azazel was nearly asleep. The dark-haired woman put away the used bowl and spoon and turned off the light. Without the light from the electric lantern it suddenly became impossible to keep his eyes open. As he began to slip away she stroked his cheek before she melted away into the night. He was too tired to dwell on the woman's actions anymore. There was only one thing that he still wondered about as his mind faded into sleep. _I wonder what her name is…_

* * *

Azazel was awake, and he was bored. Once again it was dark around the edges of the door meaning that it was night outside. He'd slept the rest of the previous night and all of the day. While he still felt crummy he had recovered enough of his energy to begin feeling restless. The incredibly plain insides of the shack gave him nothing interesting to look at. There were no books to read, no television to watch, no radio to listen to. The lack of entertaining distractions added to the fears of his new existence that lurked just beneath the surface of his thoughts made him miserable.

In desperation, Azazel began to do some more experimenting. He closed his eyes and began searching for the magnetic sense. At first it felt like a faint undercurrent beneath everything in his head, but as he relaxed and put his focus into it, it grew into something that almost felt tangible. He made note of his position in relation to the direction of the flow hoping that somehow he could figure out where he was using this information. This probably wasted only five or ten minutes so he tried to look farther and deeper. The longer he lay there feeling the earth's magnetic flow, the more tiny variations he discovered. It was almost like looking at a rainbow-colored, three-dimensional topographical map of some mountainous region. As far as he could tell, no one spot looked/felt exactly the same to his sixth sense.

He was so engrossed in his study of the magnetic 'landscape' that he failed to realize that the door to his shack had opened. Azazel was rudely jolted back to reality by a hand brushing against his cheek and forehead. His eyes snapped open to see the dark-haired woman kneeling down next to him. She did not seem surprised or startled by his sudden action; she only slowly removed her pale delicate hand from his face. The woman pulled another container of soup out of her sack and without a word began to feed him like an invalid. Azazel allowed this though he felt strong enough to sit up and feed himself. When he finished the woman began to leave, but he caught her wrist and forced her to stay.

"Who are you?" Azazel demanded.

"Who am I? The question should be who are you?" The woman countered.

"I am Azazel." He declared. "Now who are you?" He demanded once more, not in the mood for any sort of game.

"Azazel? What an odd name." She mused shifting into a more comfortable and almost seductive pose. "Well, most people know me as Raven Darkhölme, but…" She paused and studied him measuringly for a moment. Then a ripple of change flowed over her form. Her dark hair grew shorter and turned a brilliant shade of scarlet. Her pale skin darkened and turned an impossible shade of blue. Her facial features and form changed only slightly; it grew more muscular, more powerful. Her dress went from being elegant and concealing, to _very _revealing and sexy. The dress had a belt of skulls and she wore long fingerless gloves and long boots and everything was white. And finally her eyes morphed into a misty, pupil-less gray. "…you may call me Mystique."


	13. Seduction

**Chapter 12**

**Seduction**

The next few weeks were quite interesting. Mystique would come every night and bring him food that would last him the whole day. Then after she left Azazel would be left to his own devices until she came back the next time. It was a hideously boring existence doing nothing but eating, sleeping, and waiting. He had long since memorized this area's magnetic field in such detail that he was sure that it was burned into some part of his brain. And recently his strength had returned to the point where he could stand and pace in his tiny shack while he waited. This gave him plenty of practice walking with his tail, but it was still utterly boring.

But while Mystique was around it was anything but boring. Besides bringing him food she would keep him company for an hour or so. She would patiently listen to his thoughts and snippets of his past sometimes adding a comment or two of her own. He would rage against those who abandoned him and cast him out. He would complain about his backward ultra-conservative hometown. Everything that he'd disliked about his old life he would tell her and she would listen. Never before had he expressed these thoughts out loud to anyone and once he had it gave him a strange feeling of relief.

When he finished speaking she would take a turn talking either about current events or her home life. Azazel had no real interest in current events because nothing significant happened. Politicians argued over every little issue from taxes to legislation and at the same time they tried to blacken their rivals' reputations. Environmental groups made the same protests over and over. It was all the same and utterly dull. Her life at home with her husband was far more intriguing.

Five years ago she married Count Dieter Darkhölme, one of the last hereditary nobles in the area. He was rumored to have been quite a handsome man in his prime, but that was long past him. Now at the age of 55 he was growing heavier, grayer, and balder. A car accident had taken his first wife from him and left him with a permanent limp. The loss of his wife, Lila, also left him bitter and cold. In fact, the only reason he had remarried was to win a trophy wife. And that's what he thought he got when he married Raven.

But the only reason that Raven had married him was for his social status and money. Even if he had no purpose as a noble in this modern age, he still had a sizeable estate. And in social circles he still had some serious clout. As his wife she now had access to both. She instantly became somebody in the world of the elite, something that she had dreamed of as a child. And she could now indulge in the more expensive things without fear of going broke. With prestige and financial security she was set for life.

There were downsides to this arrangement though. Dieter was a jealous controlling man. When they went out to parties together he refused to let her out of his sight and if she went out alone one of the servants was sent to follow her. The only time that she was free of observation was when she went for walks out in the woods. She was like a songbird in a cage. Dieter didn't love her, but he wouldn't let any other man love her either.

And, according to her, the sex was terrible. He was an unimaginative, unimpressive lover who failed to get her off when they slept together. He could barely last long enough for it even to be worth it to her. And perhaps worst of all there was no love behind their sexual activities, only a faint shadow of lust on Dieter's part and nothing on hers. It shocked and embarrassed Azazel to hear her speak so openly about something so intensely private. Thankfully she couldn't tell, with his red fur it was impossible for anyone to be able to tell if he was blushing or not.

Whenever she spoke of her household it was to complain about these two downsides. She constantly put Dieter down, berating his greed and possessiveness. If only there was some way to control or change him to suit her needs and desires. She told him that once she had even seriously considered taking him out of the picture and slipping into his place by using her shape-shifting ability. But it would be too difficult to fool all his friends and associates for very long. So all that she could do was tolerate Dieter until he finally lay down and died.

Azazel would be mesmerized by her as she spoke. He watched as she poured out all the emotions she was forced to hide and control in the words and gestures she used to tell her tales to him. He studied the lines of her face, the glint of her eyes, the angles of her body, and learned how to read her moods so exactly that he probably knew more of what she was feeling than she herself did. He found himself fascinated by her rages and despairs and enraptured by her rare moments of pleasure. For every second that she was present he was the happiest young man on earth.

By mid-November Azazel had recovered enough to leave the empty tool shack and move out into the woods. Mystique told him that he was free to come around at night so long as he wasn't seen by anyone but her. She would still provide him with food and some extra blankets and clothes for the coming cold. If he was seen, however, all that would stop. She would cut all ties with him and might even turn on him if he was discovered to protect herself. Azazel understood completely and eagerly agreed to her terms. He would do almost anything to continue to see this beautiful mysterious woman again.

He left the Count's estate and ranged over several square miles in search of a new home to spend the coming winter. As he scouted the surrounding area he made a startling discovery. While he'd spent a whole week walking before Mystique had found him he'd been walking in huge circles. He'd managed to keep from walking into towns, but in his increasingly delirious state he'd lost his grip on his magnetic sense and lost his way. So instead of walking in a straight line for one whole week, he'd walked in squiggly lines and circles. So now he found he wasn't one week away from Winzeldorf, he was more like three days away at most. While this bothered him, it wasn't enough to make him want to move further away.

After a few days of fruitless searching and sleeping in trees Azazel finally located a cave that would suit his purposes perfectly. It was only a few hours away from the estate and very difficult to find if you didn't know what to look for. The opening was small and covered by a thick clump of bushes. Less than a foot past the narrow opening the cave it widened into a surprisingly large chamber that was dimly lit by a few scattered holes in the ceiling. The floor was made of compacted earth and it was quite dry inside. At the very back of the cave was a small, cool trickle of clean freshwater that could easily be caught by a small bowl or cup. With a little bit of work this place could be very livable, maybe even cozy.

With his new home selected he was free to get on with things. Every night he would return to the estate and spy onto the grounds from a treetop. Sometimes she would come out and visit with him and other times she wouldn't. The only thing that she would do every night was leave a basket of food for him. He would take the basket back to his cave and empty it of food. Then he would return the empty basket for Mystique to collect so that no one would notice. So secrecy was preserved and food was provided.

When Mystique did go for a walk in the forest he would always be there. Once she was out of sight of the mansion he would slip out of the concealing shadows and move to her side. Then they would keep walking away from the building until they both felt safe from prying eyes. Once a spot was selected they would sit and talk about anything and everything. It was all meaningless chatter, just a simple excuse to see each other. There were even a few times when they really said nothing at all. He would simply sit beside her and let her stroke his velvety red fur.

He knew that it was inappropriate. She was an older married woman and he was barely of age. But the sensations she could evoke simply by petting his fur were indescribably wonderful. Every little touch sent waves of tingling warmth racing down his nerves and into his middle. The first time she did it, he discovered yet another new ability. He now could purr like a cat. It startled them both when he did it the first time, but now they were used to it. In fact, he thought she might even enjoy it when he purred since she was doing it more and more often. Not that he was complaining or anything.

But one night, everything changed. They had gone out to a favorite clearing where the moonlight gave everything a strange silver glow. It was near the end of November now and getting colder, but it was still a wonderful night. Mystique didn't seem to be in the mood for talking so she engaged in stroking his fur to calm herself and pass the time. Azazel guessed that she'd had another argument with her husband, the fire in her eyes and the tightness of all her muscles told him that she was definitely not happy. So he let her have her way.

Then things began to intensify. She moved her touches from his arm to his tail and it went to a whole new level. The sensations were essentially the same only multiplied in intensity tenfold. Now matter how loudly or hard he purred it wasn't enough to describe how incredibly good it felt. His willpower instantly melted into a puddle and vaporized leaving not a trace behind. He would do just about anything to make her keep doing what she was doing. He must have died and gone to heaven; that was the only explanation for these wonderful waves of electric heat.

Suddenly there was a pause. She stopped and the purr abruptly died in his throat. He looked at her and saw an expression he'd never seen before. Her eyes glittered darkly with an intensity that made him shiver. Her face was nearly blank of any expression, but what little was, was just as intense as what he saw in her eyes. She was sitting so close to him now that her entire left side was pressed up against his right side. His heart wouldn't stop racing. For a long moment he felt confusion and disappoint. And then he understood. This was what lust looked like.

The instant he understood he made up his mind without an ounce of hesitation. She was giving him a choice whether or not to continue by pausing and he chose to continue. He leaned in the last few inches and kissed her. It wasn't the best kiss in the world, he'd never kissed a girl in the world, but that didn't matter. She understood and took things further for him. He willingly followed her lead and let it happen. As the successive waves of increasing pleasure slowly drowned his rational mind he laughed inwardly about the irony of it all. Here he was, a child of Winzeldorf, the most religiously conservative town in Germany, committing adultery with an older married woman. _Put that in your pipe and smoke it Vati!_


	14. Honeymoon's Over

**Chapter 13**

**Honeymoon's Over**

It was the first night of March, and it was still very cold and snowy. The trees and ground were coated in a layer of ice from an earlier freezing rain. Clouds obscured the moon leaving the forest dark and shadowy. Nothing moved except for one small shadowy form that drifted from tree to tree. It was definitely not an animal, for it walked upright like a man, but it wasn't exactly a man either. It had a tail and a pair of yellow glowing eyes and it had an odd gait. No man had a tail or such eyes. The shadow was Azazel and he had some important business to attend to.

He smoothly darted from shadow to shadow, using his night sight to make himself invisible to any human observer. He tried to stick to walking on patches of ice so he left little if any trail in the snow in case any hunters crossed his old path. At one point he even skated down a frozen stream to avoid any possible detection. He strived to be a phantom shadow, a night wraith that left no trace of ever existing. Azazel had no desire to have some hunters tracking him down and turning him into a floor rug.

No, he would much rather meet up with his beautiful Raven. The very thought of her brought a crooked smile to his face. His pace picked up slightly and his heart raced in anticipation. He could barely wait to see her again. The way she spoke and moved was like natural poetry. Her dark red hair, deep blue skin, and misty gray eyes created a vibrantly exotic figure that left him in awe. The way she touched him was electrifying and exciting beyond words. The more he thought of her, the faster he went, until he was nearly running from shadow to shadow.

He recalled his first few 'special' encounters with her with a mix of embarrassment and happiness. He'd had absolutely no idea what he was doing then. His knowledge of sex was pathetically limited and purely theoretical. So when it was time to perform his part of things he stumbled through like an idiot. Mystique had been forced to tell him exactly what he was supposed to do, step by step. But, while very embarrassing, these first few times were valuable learning experiences for him.

No longer was he the clumsy virgin who needed to be told what to do. He wouldn't call himself an expert yet, but he was certainly experienced enough to make it interesting. He could now give them both a pleasurable experience without having to follow Mystiques instructions. A few times he'd even managed to surprise her and those moments gave him the most pride. He was definitely more fun than that grouchy, cold, sterile, old man that she was married to.

And as his skill in pleasure grew, the locations of their activities changed. After a few rolls in the outdoors snow began to fall making it necessary to move their activities indoors. In order to keep things hidden from prying eyes they would move into the empty, abandoned tool shack for a few hours every night. It was a tight fit, but it provided adequate shelter and some warmth so that they could have their fun without catching a cold. But when the Count went off on a month-long business trip and left his wife behind things went to a whole new level.

Mystique dismissed most of the servants after her husband left, keeping only one maid and one cook. With only two people to avoid Mystique felt that it would be safe enough to let him in for short periods. At night when both servants left for their homes Azazel had almost unlimited freedom in exploring the Count's mansion. He was able to take a few real showers, eat fresh warm food, and he even slept in a guest room once in a real bed. And they were free to fool around with each other as they pleased, where ever they pleased, even in the bed that Mystique shared with her husband. It was a fleeting glimpse of heaven and he was sorry to see her husband's return.

With the Count's return the servants came back, and they were forced to take their activities back to the tiny tool shed. Azazel missed the beds, the warm food, and the sense of freedom, but as long as he could still see her he wouldn't complain. Instead, he trotted several miles every night to the Count's estate to collect his food and have a little fun with the Countess. His grin had grown so large that it threatened to break his face and he was moving so fast he nearly slipped on nearly invisible patches of ice. The sooner he got there, the better.

At the edge of the forest he put on the brakes and slid to a complete halt. He waited until his breathing slowed back down to its regular rhythm and his heart calmed itself somewhat. Once he was firmly back in control, he slipped up an icy tree and gazed out over the grounds of the Count's estate. He studied the intricate decoration of the massive building and the snow covered landscaping. One quarter of the expensive windows were lit showing how empty the building really was. It showed him how truly empty and superficial the world of the rich was.

A shadowed figure detached itself from the mass of the mansion as hurried in his general direction. With his enhanced sight it was obvious who it was. Mystique was holding his basket of food and rushing over the white ground towards the tree line like she feared something. Azazel's mood swiftly shifted from barely contained excitement to deep concern. She never hurried over to him. She walked slow and stately, awing him and driving him mad with impatience at the same time. Something must be wrong.

He waited high up in the tree, still as stone. Only when she was out of sight from the mansion did he dare move over to where she stood. Her odd behavior and the sense of wrongness drove him to move slowly and with great caution. He slipped down from a tree and crept the last few yards to her side on the ground. His stealth was so great that when he tapped Mystique on the shoulder she jumped and turned to strike him. When she recognized him, she relaxed and dropped her human façade revealing her true blue form.

"Something is wrong, isn't it." Azazel bluntly stated.

"Yes," Mystique hissed ill-temperedly.

"What happened?" He asked.

"Dieter is having one of his paranoid spells and forbids me to leave the house for any reason unescorted. He believes that I am having an affair with a woodland spirit for all the time I spend outdoors at night." She snorted derisively. "I was able to slip away this time, but it will be the last time." She replied and pressed the food basket into his hands.

"When will he let you out again?" Azazel asked fearfully.

"I don't know, but definitely not anytime soon. In fact, I shall be so guarded that I will not be able to leave any food for you, so do not come here and expect any." She muttered.

"When will I know that it is safe to come back." He wondered.

"I will hang a brightly colored handkerchief from my window." She replied absently, looking nervously over her shoulder. "I've taken too long already, I must go." She declared and resumed her disguise.

Without a backward glance she marched back toward her husband's house and her personal prison. Azazel stood numbly in the shadows and watched her go. In an instant it was all over. She was beyond his reach and he was once more alone. His source of food and a few other essentials had vanished. He was lost, adrift, and lacking purpose. Azazel wilted and sank down onto the cold hard ground. What was he supposed to do now?

In the darkness of his despair a flash of hope appeared and he latched onto it. She said that she would give him a signal when it was safe for him to return. That meant she wanted him back and all he had to do was wait. It would be a painful dull existence without her, but he'd survived just fine for the eighteen years of life that he'd lived before meeting her so he could easily survive a few months away. The only problem he could see was his food supply. He could make what he had stretch over a few days, but no longer than that.

He could try hunting and trap setting. Now that he had a permanent residence in his cave he was free to range around in search of food without worrying where he would sleep or get his drinking water. With a knife that Mystique had lent him he could try stalking small forest creatures and stabbing them. But to be successful with that technique he would need plenty of practice so setting simple traps and snares would have to sustain him until then. And if he was a complete failure at hunting and trapping he could still fall back on fishing.

With his new plan and purpose in mind Azazel stood up and headed for his cave. He left the same way he came, darting through shadows and exercising great stealth. If he was caught now he would risk dragging Mystique down with him and he didn't want to do that. He owed her far too much to do something so terrible to her. She had saved his life, nurtured him back to health, and shown him sensual pleasure that he had feared that he would never experience after his transformation. Honestly, what ordinary woman would willing sleep with him? She had given him a new lease on life and for that he would be forever grateful.

What a rollercoaster this night had been. First he was happy and excited to see Mystique and indulge in adult pleasures. Then he was crushed by suddenly being cut off from her and left out in the cold alone. And finally he was renewed with new determination to hold on until his world was restored to its proper order. Grinning once more Azazel slipped into his cozy cave, set his last basket of food aside, and curled up on a sleeping pallet he had made of dead leaves, pine needles, and dried out vegetation. After properly arranging his bedding he let out a final sigh and slid into his black dream world completely at peace.__


	15. Playing With Power

**Chapter 14**

**Playing With Power**

It was a bright warm day in May. The snow had all melted away and the forest was full of fresh new growth. Birds filled the forest with a myriad of sweet songs. Animals that had spent the winter in hibernation were now awake and feasting on the plentiful supply of new food that had appeared with the arrival of spring. New babies were being born every day to take advantage of the spring season. It was a time of rebirth and renewal. It was time for the world to shake off the icy grip of winter and begin anew.

Azazel failed to notice any of this. He was bored and hungry. So far he'd managed to survive on his own, but it was a close thing several times. There had been days when he'd had no food at all to eat. He'd fail to catch any fish, his traps would be empty, and he'd have no luck in stalking anything. Those were miserable times, but his luck would kick in just in the nick of time so that he wouldn't starve. And now that things were beginning to grow he might be able to find plants to eat. But now he had failed to find any edible plants and he hadn't caught anything in almost two days. He was sick of failure so he simply sat in his dim cave and sulked.

Beneath his hunger and boredom lurked a deep aching longing. It had been over two and a half months since he had been separated from Mystique and he missed her terribly. Every moment that he wasn't occupied he thought of her. He remembered her touch, her faint but alluring scent, and the sounds she made when he pleasured her. He remembered it all and it threatened to drive him mad sometimes. He didn't want to try hunting again today and fishing left him with too much time to think so what was there left for him to do?

Then a solution came to him. Anna had told him to explore his new abilities to learn his new limits. So far he had barely done any experimentation at all. The only things that he had learned about his new self was how to find his direction, how to move with his tail, and how to be stealthy. He'd been so focused on Mystique and survival that he hadn't thought about anything else. Now he could use his need for discovery to distract himself from his thoughts.

First he made a list of what he could do. He had night vision that turned night into day, though it was all in shades of gray. He could feel the earth's magnetic field in such detail that he could detect the smallest variations in it. His flexibility seemed to have magically increased allowing him to bend over backwards and tie himself into knots with minimal effort when before he couldn't touch his toes. Then there was his magical griping power. Sometimes he was able to scale the smooth trunks of trees in defiance of gravity. He'd even scampered down a tree face first like a squirrel without slipping or falling.

With that all figured out it was time to start exploring. He picked himself up off his bed and scampered out into the sunlight. He scuttled into a nearby clearing where the sun penetrated the dense forest canopy and paused. _Was I just running on all fours like an animal? _He wondered suddenly. Azazel looked down and found out to his surprise that he was crouched down on all four legs. _What am I now, an animal? _He thought bitterly to himself. And the worst part was the fact that he hadn't even realized that he was doing until just now. He had probably been running around like a beast since his transformation.

With a savage animal-like growl he stood up on two feet like a proper person. He shuddered in disgust at the sound that he'd made; it was another trait that proved to him that he was no longer human. His bitterness and irritation was only inflamed by his hunger and if he didn't do something about it he felt that he was going to snap. With another growl he began to stretch out seeing how many different ways he could contort his new body. After he almost got stuck he decided to quit that and do something else.

He decided to investigate his odd grip first. He wandered around until he found a nice tall tree with very few branches that were close to the ground. He began to climb it in the same way that he instinctively did every time he went up a tree trunk. Halfway to the first branch he stopped and examined his grip. The tips of his fingers and toes were pressed tightly against the tree's bark. The sensation he felt in the tips of his digits was a cross between a sort of static electricity and suction cups. Experimentally he tugged at one hand without releasing his grip and found that he couldn't. Unless he relaxed his fingers and toes there was no way any force on earth could pry him off.

Azazel scampered up the tree stopping only when the tree grew too thin to support his weight. From this superior vantage point he could see for several miles. Behind him he could see the Darkhölme estate and a sense of intense longing welled up in his chest. Before he could be overwhelmed he turned away and looked in the opposite direction. The day was so clear that far in the distance he could make out a blur of his old hometown of Winzeldorf. When he realized what it was he felt only bitterness. There was nothing left for him back there, no one, and nothing.

He looked away from the horizon and down at the surrounding trees. Several yards away he spotted a bare treetop of a recently deceased tree. He studied it for several moments before a crazy idea popped into his head. It was stupid, insane, and dangerous but he felt compelled to try it. So he shifted his grip and began to examine the distance. Then when he felt he was ready he let go of the tree and pushed off in a mighty leap. He had no idea if he could make the distance or not, but he felt that it was worth a try. What did he have to lose?

Thankfully he made it across. In fact, he almost over shot his goal. Once his breathing and heart-rate returned to normal he turned back and reassessed the distance. It was at least five yards away and this tree was only a yard lower than the tree that he had jumped from. Azazel was quite impressed with himself. It looked like he could add super jumps to his list of new abilities. After he added that point to his mental list he decided to practice it some more. And so he spent a good hour or so jumping from tree to tree like some sort of twisted red devil monkey.

At the end of that hour, however, he was worn out and a bit dizzy. So he slithered down the tree and began weaving his way back to his cave. He determined that he'd had enough for today. Perhaps after he ate a meal he would do more discovering, but now he needed to rest and conserve his energy. If he didn't he wouldn't have any left to get more food and without more food he wouldn't have the energy he needed to get through the next few days. And so rest was the course for him. Rest and fish.

Fishing required the minimal amount of energy in order to catch a decent amount of food. When he reached his cave he retrieved one of his most precious possessions. One of the things he'd asked Mystique for was a fishing rod and some rubber worms. Fortunately for him, the Count had been an avid fisherman and had a large collection of fishing poles. So when Azazel had spent time inside the mansion she let him pick what he wanted. He selected a small simple one that would satisfy his needs and he hoped wouldn't be missed if the old man ever decided to view his collection on some rainy day. With his pole all set; he slunk off to the nearby pond where he fished.

At the pond Azazel sank down onto a rock and cast out his line into a shadowy area near the opposite shore. Every few minutes he'd twitch the rod to give the illusion that the rubber worm on the hook was alive. And so the waiting game began. For hours he sat idle watching the red and white sphere wiggle and the sun creep through the sky. Aside from the song of birds and the buzzing of insects there was no sound. When the sun vanished from the sky leaving the world dark it was time for Azazel to go home. In all that time that he was fishing he caught only three small fish. But that was better than nothing so he couldn't complain.

Halfway back to his cave he stopped to clean the fish and bury the inedible entrails in the ground so no scavenging animals would come to his cave looking for them. Then he skewered the fish on a stick and carried them into the cave. There he started a fire and began to cook his fish dinner. Slowly the fish sizzled, charred, and steamed. They began to give off a mouth watering odor and it took all of Azazel's willpower to let the fish keep cooking. When they were done he devoured them so quickly and completely that there was barely any sign that they had ever existed.

While the fish didn't completely sate his hunger, it took more than the edge off of it. Feeling much better it was time for him to perform his nightly pilgrimage to Count Darkhölme's estate. Under the cover of night he made his way the two miles from his cave to the mansion. Normally he walked the whole way, but this time he decided to use his new climbing and tree jumping skills the get there. That way he'd leave no tracks on the ground for any curious hunters to find. And he also found it to be an enjoyable challenge to travel this way. Sometimes he was able to move so fast that he felt like he was flying.

In no time at all he reached his customary tree, the same one he sat in every night as he waited in vain for the colored handkerchief to appear and call him over. He crouched mutely on his favorite branch and waited. He kept time by swinging his tail like a pendulum, one second in each direction. After ten minutes of this his time was up. If he didn't leave now he probably wouldn't be able to make himself leave until the sun came up. With a sigh of disappointment he looked away from the massive house and prepared himself to return to his humble cave.

He could picture it now. He could see the dome-like ceiling with the scattered pinholes of faint light. He could see the packed earth floor. He could see his fire pit in the center of his floor. He could see his pile of meager possessions, his now empty basket, his pile of blankets and spare clothes, and his few cooking and eating utensils, as they sat in their corner. He could see his crude pile of bedding. He could almost sense the unique magnetic field of his cave. And then something odd happened in his brain. It felt like there were two wires in his head that were struggling to form a connection. As he focused on his home, thinking about being there, they suddenly met.

Suddenly he wasn't sitting in the tree anymore. He was speeding everywhere and nowhere. He spun end over end, round and round, and inside out. There was a flash of heat and an odd smell, like smoky rotten eggs. Then it stopped and he hit the ground. For a few minutes he simply laid there and wondered if he'd had some sort of vision or hallucination and fallen out of the tree. Then he looked around and realized that he was back in his cave. Azazel blinked rapidly in confusion. How did he get here? All he'd done was think of this place and somehow he was here. He couldn't understand it. It made no sense. It shouldn't be possible.

Then he remembered something. On the night when he changed from a boy into an odd red furry creature this exact same thing had happened. In his haze of pain and confusion he'd thought of that one clearing that had been in his dream. Then he'd had that same sensation and passed out. When he woke up here was in the clearing just like how he'd just appeared in his cave. He'd moved himself just by focusing on the place he wanted to be. Now that was an interesting and useful ability. It reminded him of some term he'd seen in a science fiction book that had been hidden in the back of Winzeldorf's bookstore. He could teleport!

But now he wondered how far he could go. Azazel picked himself up off the cave floor and scampered out of the cave forgetting that he was running on all fours again. He perched on a nearby log and began to think. Where should he try to go? He decided to try for that clearing, it should be far enough away from Winzeldorf to be safe and he'd traveled there once before. So he visualized it and focused on it, trying to form that same connection in his head as before. It took longer than before, and somehow it felt different, wrong somehow. And when he was sent flying it hurt.

When he reappeared he was upside-down and tangled in a tree. He was nowhere near where he wanted to be. Azazel frowned, what went wrong? He hung there by his feet and tail and thought for a while. The only possible thing that he could come up with was that the clearing was just too far away from his target. He righted himself and climbed up to the top of the tree and tried to get his bearings. As far as he could tell he'd only made it two miles away in the direction of his clearing. So it seemed the limit of his range was two miles. _Verdammt, there goes my idea to teleport to Fiji._

With a sigh he focused on making short two mile jumps toward his goal. He wanted to go there and he would get there no matter how long it took him. So after a few more jumps he made it. By this time his landings had improved to the point where he didn't land flat on his face, now he appeared a foot or so above to ground so that he could land on his feet. Now he looked around, his sharp glowing golden eyes picking up every detail. Everything looked exactly how he expected it to, except for one spot. There was a foreign shape poking out from under a bush.

Cautiously he crept over for a closer examination. It was a basket, slightly larger than the one that Mystique would leave for him. Inside he found several cans of condensed soup, a loaf of bread, and a package of crackers. Beneath the layer of food he found a raincoat and a piece of an old tarp. And beneath that he found a picture frame. In it there was a recent picture of him and Wolfie taken only a few days before his nightmares began. They both had silly grins on their youthful care-free faces as they enjoyed the last day of summer. He almost broke down into tears at the sight of it and he knew exactly who left these things for him. _Danke schön Anna, danke._


	16. Realizations of Reality

**Chapter 15**

**Realizations of Reality**

Time passes and the seasons change. Spring turned to summer as the months rolled by. The days grew warmer and longer. The young animals that were born in the spring were beginning to grow up and explore the world around them. They young spring growth had matured into deep green summer plants. The spring blossoms were now gone and replaced by those that bloomed in the summer. It was a beautiful day today. The temperature was just right with a faint breeze that kept things from getting stuffy. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, but the forest provided more than enough shade to keep things comfortably cool.

Azazel failed to notice any of this. He was lounging on a fallen log deep within his domain. Now what he considered his domain was defined by his teleporting range. In the east his border touched the edge of the Darkhölme estate, the distance of one 'port. In the other three directions he extended his borders to five miles, two and a half 'ports. Every bit of land that fit inside his square of territory he considered his property regardless of who legally owned it. No one else ever came here so he might as well use it. But he wasn't thinking about the legality of his domain.

By his reckoning today was the 16th of August. He'd kept track of the date after leaving the mansion by memory and making notches in a thick stick. So if he was right about the date, and he was sure that he was, today was his 19th birthday. On his 18th birthday he'd gone out to the lake with his friends and spent the whole day messing around. It had been fun and he'd been more than satisfied by the simple gifts that Wolfie and a few others had presented him with. But that was all over now; he wouldn't have any happy gathering like that to celebrate his 19th birthday. Today he would be alone.

With a heavy sigh he rolled off the log and began to wander aimlessly. If he and Mystique were still able to see each other he might get some special birthday sex, but still he had not seen the signal that it was safe to return. Night after night he would 'port to his waiting tree and wait for the signal to appear or some glimpse of her in a window, but he would always leave disappointed. In the beginning his hopes were high that they would be reunited again soon, but with each passing night his bright hopes began to slowly dim. Now there was barely an ember of his hope left. One more month of waiting and he knew it would be gone.

It was late afternoon and Azazel had nothing to do on his birthday. So he decided to do something incredibly stupid. He was going to pay Winzeldorf a little visit. For weeks he had wondered how close he could get without getting caught. Now he was in the mood to find out. He rushed up a tree trunk with speed and grace that put squirrels and monkeys to shame. At the top of the tree he paused to study the clear summer sky. He turned his focus in the direction of the backwards little town of Winzeldorf. Then he began the process of 'porting there two miles at a time.

When he arrived at his clearing where Anna regularly left him food he paused to clear his head, seven 'ports in a row tended to make him a bit dizzy and leave him with a headache. This was the main reason that he usually only made this trip twice a week. After five minutes of rest he darted up a tree and very slowly, very carefully made his way back towards town. The journey that would normally take him less than an hour to make now took him two and a half. And at the end of those two and a half hours he had only just reached the edge of the Church cemetery. This is where he stopped and went no further.

Just inside the edge of the forest there was a tombstone and a circle of people in mourning garb standing around it. They said nothing and didn't move; they simply stood there in silent prayer. Using all his skill and stealth Azazel tried to creep close enough through the trees to see whose headstone it was. From what he could tell the grave wasn't fresh, it was completely covered in thick green grass so it was at least several months old. Unfortunately he couldn't get into a position to read the name, too many people stood in his way. So he settled himself down to wait until they all left so that he could satisfy his morbid curiosity.

After a good five minutes or so, people began to leave. He recognized most of them as close friends of his parents. Then he spotted his parents themselves leaving the grave. Now he was dying to know who was buried here. He had no idea who could attract such a crowd of people that were close to his family. Soon there were only three people left, Father Drachen, Wolfie, and Heidi. They were clustered tightly around the tombstone so Azazel still couldn't see the name of the deceased. The long wait was starting to get on his nerves and his tail began to tap against the branch that he perched on.

Then Father Drachen gave a final silent blessing and departed. Heidi was next to leave. She placed a few flowers on the grave and hurried away fighting off tears. This highly intrigued Azazel. Who had died after he left that would affect her so? Now only Wolfie remained behind. According to his sharp senses of sight and hearing there was no one close enough except for Wolfie to care if he revealed his presence. And after a minute or two of debate that's what he decided to do. He dropped down from his branch and landed without a sound and moved as close as he dared to his former best friend. It was then that he realized that Wolfie was crying.

"Why?" Wolfie sobbed. "Why?"

"Why what?" Azazel asked curiously. Wolfie spun around to face him, revealing his tear-stained face.

"You bastard!" Wolfie choked out once he recognized who he faced. Azazel only cocked an eyebrow in response. "What are you doing here? You were banished!" Wolfie snarled.

"Just visiting." Azazel replied.

"You'd better leave before someone else sees you." Wolfie growled trying to fight back more sobs.

"No one but you has seen me and will see me." Azazel countered with cool confidence.

"Just shut up and go away." Wolfie cried and turned back to face the grave. He was overcome by his grief and he collapsed finally revealing the name on the tombstone to Azazel, and he finally understood.

"Stop crying Wolfgang." Azazel said softly.

"What should I? My best friend would've been 19 today if it wasn't for you!" Wolfie sobbed brokenly.

"Perhaps, perhaps not." Azazel whispered as he sank down next to the grief-stricken young German.

"What do you mean by that?" Wolfie whimpered.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, you wouldn't want to believe it." Azazel replied matter-of-factly.

"Well then tell me anyway! What do you care if I believe you or not?" Wolfie cried looking up at the demon he thought had killed his friend with hateful defiance.

"You believe him to be dead, yet there is no body in this grave, only a stone with a name carved into it. He has been declared dead, but have you seen the body with your own eyes? Has anyone ever told you what happened that night?" Azazel asked.

"No, I haven't seen the body; Father Hermann said that there wasn't anything left." Wolfie sniffled. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"What did the good Father say about what happened?" Azazel quietly demanded.

"He said that the demon corrupted his body and destroyed it." Wolfie whispered as he was overcome by another fit of sobs.

"Interesting." Azazel murmured to himself. "Well, I'll tell you my version of events and you can decide for yourself what is truth and what is not. I remember the exorcism, and I remember pain. I remember waking up far away and being clubbed by a rifle of a man I knew all my life. I remember being held in a cell and dragged before the whole town and branded a demonic fallen angel. I remember being cast out and left to die. I remember everything that your friend remembered and there are no gaps. That is my truth, now it is up to you to discover yours." Azazel whispered.

"What is it that you are suggesting?" Wolfie demanded in a voice raw from crying.

"I am not suggesting anything, only telling you what is the truth as I see and know it. Now please stop crying, would your friend wish to see you so sad on his account?" Azazel asked rhetorically. He rose up from the ground and began to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Wolfie asked as he struggled to get in control of his emotions.

"'Where am I going?' I thought you wanted me to leave." Azazel teased as he slowly began to climb up a nearby tree. He heard Wolfie gasp at his tree climbing skills and grinned a little.

"Will you ever visit again?" Wolfie inquired just before Azazel was about to teleport away.

"_Ja,_" he replied after a moment. "I think that I shall visit on my two birthdays, but unless you call for me when I am near you won't see me." Azazel looked back down at his old friend. "Until then, _auf wiedersehen _Wolfie." Before Wolfie could respond Azazel vanished in a cloud of sulfurous smoke.

Azazel reappeared in his clearing and paused to get a grip on himself before continuing on home. Now he was committed to visiting that false grave site for two days out of the year. August 16th and October 10th were now days to keep track of. As he began the seven 'ports back to his cave he began to think. The summer would soon come to an end and fall would arrive. Fruit and berries would be plentiful then, but after that winter would arrive. He would have to prepare for that and he couldn't depend on Mystique's assistance. But when he made it home to his cave he didn't think about the future. All that he thought about was the one image remained fixed in his mind. A tombstone.

_Felix Hausmann_

_1968-1986_

_Beloved son and friend._

_The demon took him from us_

_far too soon._

_He shall be greatly missed._

**-End-**


End file.
